cognition, motivation and mood Flashcards
Cognition refers to
processes involved in gaining knowledge, comprehension, and completing tasks
it includes:
- memory
- languauge
- oreintation
- judgement
- performing actions (praxis)
- problem solving
6 neurocognitive domains
1.** excectuive function**- planning, decision making, working memory, responding to feedback, inhibiition, flexibility
2. complex attention- divided attention, selective attention, processing speed, sustained attention
3. social cognition- insight, thoery of mind, recognition of emotions
**4. learning and memory **- free recall, cued recall, recognition memory, semantic and autobiographcal long term memory, implicit learning
5. language- object naming, ,word finding, grammar and syntax, recpetive languagem fluency
6. perceptual-motor function= visual perception, visuocontrcutional reasoning, perceptual-motor coordination
encoding of information and experiences into neural pathways for later retrieval (encoding in neural pathways so you can remember later)
provides a basis of shared knowledge, like language and social concepts
Memory
3 types of memory
-
Working memory- something that is happening at the time you are using
2.Declarative memory- FACTS you know - Procedural memory- how to do something (riding a bike)
- Temporary storage and manipulation of information
- Maintains goal-relevant information for short time
- Essential for holding a conversation, problem solving, mental navigation, reasoning
- Requires the lateral pre-frontal cortex, temporoparietal association cortex, and white matter tracts (myelinated axons communicate b/w areas) connecting the two areas
- Will not remember for years (days, weeks, months)
Working Memory
- Recollections that can be easily declared (e.g., answering trivia questions)
- Requires attention to recall, so aka conscious or explicit memory
- 3 stages:
- Encoding
- Consolidation
- Retrieval
- Ex: Answering trivia question
- when you first learn it, it gets encoded and then consolidated and then you are retrieving info when answering it
Declarative Memory
what is the first step of declarative memory?
- Enhanced by paying attention to different parts of information, emotional arousal, linking new information to other information, reviewing.
- Distraction or lack of interest interferes with encoding.
- If other senses are involved- helps with encoding- use smell or sound to help remember
Encoding
what is the 2nd step of declarative memory?
- Stabilization of memory networks for long-term
- Involves building new synapses and strengthening them; connecting neurons together into circuits that when activated will allow you to recall information
- Requires anatomical and functional changes in brain called long-term potentiation (LTP) (glutamate recptors) and reorganization of neural circuits in medial temporal lobe
Consolidation
* Memory Hub
* Site of extensive integration of information
* Bits of information (action potentials) about an “event” or an “object” that converge simultaneously in a subset of neurons lead to anatomical strengthening of connections between those neurons (Long-Term Potentiation; LEARNING)
* When memories converge- connections, this is how the brain consolidates them
* In future, when only one or a few of those neurons fire, they reciprocally activate all neurons in the circuit and the event or object is recalled, together with all the associated emotions (MEMORY)
Hippocampus
describe 2 types of ionotropic receptors in hippocampus
1.** AMPA-** normal sodium channels - Na causes AP to fire
2.** magnesium blocks NMDA recoptor-** ca binds and removes mg from channel so sodium and ca can enter cell= important for long term potentiation
**cingulate cortex **is important for _________ memory and emotional salience of memories
spatial
Frontal cortex is important for ________________ memory (recall of objects, facts and events)
declarative
which lobe is responsible for declarative memory and consolidation?
medial temporal lobe
____________ ______________is when you can’t recall memories from your past
retrograde amnesia
when you can’t form new memories but can still remember things from before you developed this amnesia
aterograde amnesia
Subjective cognitive impairment (SCI)
- subjective decline in memory and functioning (patient reported- cannot remember things as well as they used to)
- does not meet the clinical definition of MCI in which subtle changes may become visible to observers and cognitive impairment is elicited with testing
Mild cognitive impairment
- syndrome of cognitive decline that exceeds normal age-associated changes, but is less than that seen in dementia.
- When you give battery of cognitive tests, do not do as well as they should for age and cog level
What is dementia?
- A syndrome due to disease of the brain, usually of a chronic or progressive nature.
- disturbance of multiple higher cortical functions, including memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language, and judgement.
dementia risk factors
60-70 years
female
-prior stroke
- heart ds
- diabetes
- diet
- cholesterol problems
3 Lab tests for dementia
- blood tests
- Electrical/Imaging
- CNS samples
Neuro-psychiatric symptoms in dementia
- Changes in personality
- Delusions and hallucinations
- Mood
- Catastrophic reaction
- Sundowning (pretty clear in the day, in the evening- they get more confused and get worse symptoms): drowsiness, confusion, ataxia, falls.
Symptoms of ……
* Wandering
* Change in eating habits
* Altered sleep
* Incontinence
dementia
