Chapter 15: Neuropsychology Flashcards
exam 4 material
what is neuropsychology?
a specialty field within clinical psychology that seeks to understand and treat patients with cognitive impairments, neuropsychologists are licensed doctoral level clinical psychologists who complete specialized training
what are neurocognitive disorders?
when a patient experiences a decline in functioning in one or more cognitive domains after a known challenge to the nervous system (attention, executive function, learning and memory, perception and movement, social cognition, and language)
what are some examples of neuropsychological assessments?
letter-number sequency task (working memory), symbol digit modalities task (attention), hopkins verbal learning test and brief visuospatial memory test (verbal and visuospatial memory), and computerized iowa gambling task (decision-making)
how is Alzheimer’s disease diagnosed?
genetic testing or family history, clear evidence of learning and memory impairments, a steady, gradual loss of cognitive function without plateaus
what are the genetic changes that cause Alzheimers?
the e^4 variant of the APOE gene is responsible for packaging cholesterol and other fats and carrying them through the bloodstream, e^4 variant is the most reliable genetic risk factor of Alzheimer’s
what is the neurobiology of Alzheimer’s?
atrophy of the cerebellar cortex and neurodegeneration, neurofibrillary tangles and tau proteins form, beta amyloid protein plaques form
what causes vascular disease (stroke)?
a stroke occurs when the brain’s blood supply is interrupted by either:
cerebral hemorrhage/aneurysms or the sudden blockage of a blood vessel (ischemia and transient ischemic attacks (TIA)), creates infarcts, or regions of dead tissue
what is the neurobiology of a stroke?
oxygen loss triggers massive glutamate release, excess glutamate release produces neural damage through excitotoxicity, neuronal cell death occurs immediately after
a stroke, but prompt medical attention can save the neurons and glia in the penumbra
what are the different types of traumatic brain injuries?
open head injuries where the skull is penetrated and closed head injuries like concussions (coup countercoup where hitting the front of your head and your brain hits the back of the skull can cause subdural hematoma and white matter damage)
what are the symptoms of TBI?
acute immediate symptoms can be memory loss, dizziness, fatigue, irritability, disorientation and confusion, and neurological deficits
what are some ways to treat TBIs?
medications that inhibit glutamate or progesterone can be used immediately after injury, enhancing dopamine activity or using norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors may improve cognitive performance and attention abilities in chronic TBIs
what is prion disease and what are its symptoms?
transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), the prion protein can exist in two forms, depending on how it’s folded (PrP c (normal) or PrP sc (scrapie; causes TSE))
psychological disturbances: including paranoia, anxiety, and depression; progressive loss of cognitive function; motor disturbances; and death
what are the types of prion disease?
TSE first identified in sheep (Scrapie), creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is the first prion disease discovered in humans (very rare; 1–2 deaths per million worldwide, caused by genetics or exposure to infected tissue), kuru which is transmitted through consumption of human
tissue, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) (transmitted through consumption of infected bovine, led to bans on the use of mammal proteins in animal feed), Fatal Familial Insomnia (a are genetic degenerative brain disorder,
caused by an abnormal variant in the prion-
related protein (PRPN) gene)
what is epilepsy?
a seizure is an uncontrolled electrical disturbances in
the brain correlated with changes in consciousness
(paroxysmal depolarizing shift (PDS): large, abrupt depolarization of affected neurons that triggers a train of action potentials and is
followed by a period of hyperpolarization)
what are the different types of seizures and what are their treatments?
grand mal seizures (tonic-clonic) and petit mal are absent seizures, treated with antiepileptic drugs (GABA agonists) and ketogenic diet in children, partial seizures begin at a point a spread and generalized seizures do not have a focal point
