Ch 1 additional study guide questions Flashcards

1
Q

Who is Rene Descartes?

A

(1596-1650) French anatomist and philosopher, he wrote what could be considered the first neuropsychology text in 1684 (after death?). Body is like machines seen during his lifetime. Body is material, has spatial extent, and responds mechanically and reflexively to events that impinge on it. Conversely, the mind was nonmaterial and without spatial extent.

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2
Q

What is the mind body problem?

A

how the mind (immaterial) can exist inside of and control over the material body.

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3
Q

What is dualism?

A

the idea that the mind and body are separate but can interact.

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4
Q

what is materialism (reductionism)?

A

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) and Charles Darwin (1809-1892)

Rational behavior can be fully explained by the workings of the nervous system. No need to refer to a nonmaterial mind.

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5
Q

Who is Franz Josef Gall?

A

(1758-1828)

  1. proposed that the brain was a functional unit beyond the “covering of the pineal gland” as thought by Descartes.
  2. through dissection, they showed that the brain’s major motor pathway (the corticospinal tract) leads from the cortex of each hemisphere to the spinal cord on the opposite side of the body.
  3. Suggested that the cortex sends signals to the body to make muscles move.
  4. Also recognized that the two hemispheres were linked by the corpus callosum and are therefore, capable of interacting.
  5. gave the first account of a case in which frontal-lobe damage was followed by loss of the ability to speak. the case because a factor in discoveries concerning the brain’s role in language.
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6
Q

Who is Johann Casper Spurzheim?

A

(1776-1832) partner and colleague of Franz Josef Gall.

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7
Q

Define phrenology. Describe it and provide criticisms.

A

Study of the relation between the skull’s surface features and a person’s mental faculties.

They measured bumps and depressions of the skull and suggested that these correlate with the size of the brain beneath. These bumps, along with the localization of function hypothesis, created phrenology.

Some traits that were used (faith, self-love, veneration) are impossible to define or to quantify objectively.
revealed that superficial features of the skull reveal very little about the underlying brain.

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8
Q

What is a cranioscopy?

A

a procedure in which a device was placed around the skull to measure its bumps and depressions. They correlated the bumps to the phrenological map to determine the person’s likely behavioral traits.

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9
Q

Describe the localization of function hypothesis.

A

By Franz Josef Gall, assertion that different and specific brain areas control each kind of behavior. Though inaccurate, it laid the foundation for modern views of functional localization, beginning with localization of language.

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10
Q

What is aphasia?

A

a disorder in which the patient is not able to speak or comprehend language despite the presence of normal comprehension and intact vocal mechanisms.

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11
Q

What is apraxia?

A

inability to make sequences of movements. Wernicke’s student Hugo Liepmann (1863-1925) show that this can result from the disconnection of motor areas from sensory areas.

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12
Q

What is alexia?

A

loss of the ability to read. Joseph Dejerine (1849-1917) discovered this could result from disconnection between the brain’s visual area and Wernicke’s area.

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13
Q

Who is Paul Broca?

A

Founder of the Anthropological Society of Paris.
known for locating speech in the third convolution (gyrus) of the frontal lobe on the left side of the brain. Discovered the brain property of functional lateralization.

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14
Q

What is Broca’s area?

A

anterior speech region of the brain, named after Paul Broca. Located in the posterior third of the inferior gyrus of the frontal lobe in the left hemisphere.

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15
Q

What is Broca’s aphasia?

A

name of disorder resulting from damage to Broca’s area. Associated with paralysis of the right arm and leg (as evident in Tan’s case.)

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16
Q

Who is Tan?

A

Monsieur Leborgne. He was a patient of Paul Broca, who could only say the word, “Tan” in spite of being capable of other cognitive function. This earned him the nickname “Tan.” Upon his death, this allowed confirmation of Bouillard’s theory that damage to the left frontal lobe could cause language deficits. (supports lateralization)

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17
Q

What is lateralization?

A

the idea that one side of the brain can perform a function not shared by the other. (Benton, 1974.) located on one side of the brain.

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18
Q

Who was Carl Wernicke?

A

(1848-1904) German anatomist who created the first model of how the brain produces language in 1874.
was aware that part of the cortex into which the sensory pathway rom the ear projects, is located in the temporal lobe behind Broca’s area.
Suspected a relation between hearing and speech functioning

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19
Q

What is Wernicke’s aphasia?

A

disorder in which the patient can speak, but their speech is confused and doesn’t make sense. (In Broca’s, they couldn’t speak but could comprehend) No paralysis of right and left arm. results from damage to Wernicke’s area, part of the auditory cortex located in the temporal lobe behind Broca’s Area.

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20
Q

What is arcuate fasciculus?

A

pathway through which Wernicke believed sound traveled from the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe to Broca’s area.

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21
Q

What is conduction aphasia?

A

Predicted disorder by Wernicke, assertion that if the arcuate fibers were cut, without damage on either area (Broca’s or Wernicke’s) then this speech deficit would occur. Speech sounds and movements are retained, but speech is impaired because it cannot be conducted from one region to the other. The patient would be unable to repeat what is heard.

22
Q

Who is Norman Geschwind?

A

confirmed the existence of conduction aphasia (1974) and the model was updated to reflect both their contributions, becoming the Wernicke-Geschwind model.

23
Q

Describe the concept of disconnection?

A

Proposed by Wernicke. Idea that though there are specific areas of the brain for specific functions, that these structures rely on each other and are interdependent.

Important in neuropsychology because it predicts that complex behaviors are built up in assembly-line fashion as information collected by sensory systems enters the brain and traverses different structures before producing an overt response. Second, because disconnecting brain structures by cutting connecting pathways can impair those structures in ways that resemble damage to the structures themselves.

24
Q

Describe a persistent vegetative state.

A

condition in which the patient is alive but unable to communicate or to function independently at even the most basic level because of damage to the brain that was so extensive that recovery is not expected.

25
Q

Describe a minimally conscious state.

A

Condition in which a person can display some rudimentary behaviors but is otherwise not conscious.

26
Q

What is amnesia?

A

partial or total loss of memory

27
Q

Who is HM?

A

patient of neurosurgeon William B. Scoville who removed parts of the temporal lobes from the left and right hemispheres to treat his epilepsy. though the seizures abated, he developed amnesia.

He was studied for more than 50 years. from his case, it was revealed that rather than a single memory structure in the brain, a number of neural structures encode memories separately and in parallel.

HM retained memories prior to surgery but could not make new memories. He could acquire motor skills but couldn’t recall learning them. Demonstrates (w LD) that the neural structures for learning motor skills and those for remembering that one has those skills are separate.

28
Q

Describe the binding problem.

A

describes the lack of knowledge about the ability of the brain to take multiple areas of separate information and integrate it into a full experience or memory.

extends from perceptive to motor to cognitive processes. Although the brain analyzes sensory events through multiple parallel channels that do not converge on a single brain region, we perceive a unified experience.

29
Q

Who is Joseph Bogen?

A

in the 1960’s, this neurosurgeon performed a procedure intended to fix epilepsy from crossing hemispheres (causing more damage) but cutting the commissures and the corpus callosum of patients.

30
Q

Who is Phillip Vogel?

A

Another neurosurgeon involved with split brain patients.

31
Q

Who is Roger Sperry?

A

he conducted a series of studies on split brain patients that provided a new view of how each hemisphere functions. Won a Nobel (1981). concluded that each hemisphere possesses complementary self-awareness and social consciousness and that much of internal mental life, especially in the right hemisphere, is inaccessible to analysis using spoken language.
Proposed that a neuropsychology that does not include accepting existence of a private mental life, and that relies solely on quantitative, objective measurement of behavior cannot fully understand a brain in which inner experience itself is causal in expressing overt behavior.

32
Q

Describe split-brain research.

A

By Roger Sperry, patients were presented information separately to each hemisphere. Although mute, the right hemisphere was found to comprehend words spoken aloud, read printed words, point to corresponding objects or pictures in an array and match presented objects or picture correctly from spoken to printed words and vise vera.

33
Q

What is a lesion?

A

any damage to the nervous system.

34
Q

Describe a CT scan.

A

(Computed Tomography) passes X-rays through the head which are absorbed less by fluid than by brain cells and less by brain cells than by bone. dead cells produce the darkest image.

35
Q

Describe an MRI scan.

A

(Magnetic Resonance Imaging) calculates the location of moving molecules by detecting electrical charges generated by movement. Brain tissue varies in concentration allowing an MRI to use regional differences to reveal excellent brain images. Can also determine relative concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide and can be used to determine regional differences in brain activity. This allows the functional MRI (fMRI) to track brain activity, which can be superimposed onto brain anatomy.

36
Q

Describe a PET scan.

A

(Positron Emission Tomography) injection of radioactive substances that decay in minutes into the bloodstream to reach the brain. As they decay, photons are given off, allowing a computer to draw their location on a two or three dimensional reconstruction of the brain.

37
Q

Describe a DTI scan.

A

(diffusion tensor imaging) an MRI method that detects the directional movements of water molecules to create virtual images of the brain’s nerve fiber pathways. used by the Human Connectome Project to pursue the goal of mapping the human brain’s connectivity.

38
Q

Describe Descartes’ concept of reflex action. (Fig. 1.3)

Extra

A

Person at fire pit.

  1. Heat from the flame causes a thread in the nerve to be pulled, releasing ventricular fluid through an opened pore.
  2. The fluid flows through the nerve, causing not only the foot to withdraw but the eyes and head to turn to look at it, the hands to advance, and the whole body to bend to protect it.
  3. Descartes ascribed to reflexes behaviors that today are considered too complex to be reflexive, whereas he did not conceive of behavior described as reflexive today.
39
Q

What are the two categories of dementia as defined in the DSM-5?

A

Major neurocognitive disorder (NCD)

or minor neurocognitive disorder (mild NCD)

40
Q

NCD is defined as…

A

evidence of substantial cognitive decline from a previous level of performance based upon the concerns of the individual, a knowledgeable informant or the clinician; and a decline in neurocognitive performance, typically below appropriate norms on formal testing or equivalent clinical evaluation.
Cognitive defects must interfere with ADL’s and not be explained by another disorder.
Mild is not as severe, between one and two standard deviations, and do not interfere with ADLs.

41
Q

What are the five categories of NCD labeled on pg. 784 of the textbook?

A

Tauopathies (Alzheimer’s) accumulation of tau proteins inside neurons.

Syncucleinopathies: accumulation of alpha-synuclein protein in neurons

Vascular Dementias and Vascular Cognitive Impairments: injuries to cerebral blood vessels (Multi-infarct dementia or Subcortical vascular dementia [Binswanger’s disease]).

Mixed Dementias: combinations of disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and vascular symptoms

Other Dementias: Prion-related dementias (Creutzfeld-Jacob disease)
Huntington’s Disease
Secondary dementias (Wilson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, encephalitis)
Head injury (chronic traumatic encephalopathy from repeated brain trauma)
Infectious dementias (AIDS dementia, syphilis)
Drug-related dementias: chronic alcohol or psychotropic drugs such as ecstasy.

42
Q

What paralimbic cortex changes occur in Alzheimer’s patients?

A

the entorhinal cortex is affected earliest and most severely. It is the major relay through which information from the cortex gets to the hippocampus and related structures and is then sent back tot he cortex. Damage is associated with memory loss, and given that memory loss is an early and enduring symptom of the disease, it is most likely caused by the degenerative chances that take place in this limbic area.

43
Q

What areas of the brain tend to be spared in Alzheimer’s Disease? What are most affected?

A

primary sensory and motor areas, especially the visual cortex and the sensorimotor cortex are spared. The frontal lobes are less affected than the posterior cortex, where the areas of most extensive change are in the posterior parietal, inferior temporal, and limbic cortices.

44
Q

What accounts for the most wide spread cell changes in Alzheimer’s disease?

A

loss of dendritic arborization.

45
Q

Describe changes in neurotransmitters in Alzheimer’s disease.

A

ACh is reduced early. Noradrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin are reduced as are the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) and AMPA (alpha amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoazole-4-proprionic acid).

Alzheimer’s patients will show a pattern of greater reduction in two or more neurotransmitters when compared to control groups.

46
Q

What are the Alzheimer’s-disease-suseptible-genes?

A

those that encode beta amyloid precursor protein (B-APP) and transmembrane proteins presenilin 1 and presenilin 2.

47
Q

Which gene is thought responsible for the tau abnormality?

A

results from a disturbance in the MAPT gene on chromosome 16.

48
Q

What is the typical pattern shown on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale in Alzheimer’s patients?

A

they are marked by striking deficits that they show on digit sympbol and block design, with successively milder impairments on objcect assembly, similarities and digit span, and information and vocabulary.

49
Q

What tests (other than the WAIS) are sensitive to Ahzheimer’s patients?

A

backward digits
telling time on clocks without numbers
object naming.

50
Q

What additional deficits are typically shown by Alzheimer’s patients in regard to testing?

A

left and right hemisphere function deficits and impairments not marked by sudden onset.

51
Q

F. Jacob Huff (1986) showed that…

A

the anomia deficit is characterized by a loss of information about specific objects and their names rather than retrieval difficulties. These are unlikely to result from just memory problems, as simple conversations remain unimpacted while complex conversations are markedly more impaired.