Definitions Flashcards
Akinesia
- inability to initiate movement
- Ex: freezing of gait in Parkinson’s
Asthenia
Generalized weakness, typically secondary to cerebellar pathology.
Ataxia
The inability to perform coordinated movements.
- looks like drunk walk
Athetosis
Slow, twisting, writhing, involuntary, large amplitude movements combined with postural instability; usually seen in face, tongue, trunk, and extremities.
Bradykinesia
Slow movement
Chorea
- Sudden, random, involuntary movements
- Can look similar to fidgeting
- Typically secondary to damage to the caudate nucleus
- Huntington’s
Clasp-knife response
Form of resistance seen during range of motion of a hypertonic joint where there is the greatest resistance at the initiation of range that lessens with movement through the range of motion.
Clonus
Involuntary alternating spasmodic contraction of a muscle precipitated by a quick stretch reflex.
- UMN
Cogwheel rigidity
Form of rigidity where resistance to movement has a phasic quality to it.
- Parkinson’s
Dysdiadochokinesia
Inability to perform rapidly alternating movements.
Dysmetria
Inability to control the range of a movement and the force of muscular activity.
Dystonia
Closely related to athetosis, but there is larger axial muscle movment than appendicular muscles.
Fasciculation
Muscular twitch caused by random discharge of an LMN and its muscle fibers.
- Suggests LMN disease
Hemiballism
Involuntary, large, violent movement of large body part
Kinesthesia
Ability to perceive the direction and extent of movement of a joint or body part.
Lead pipe rigidity
Form of rigidity where there is uniform and constant resistance to range of motion
- basal ganglia lesions
Rigidity
State of severe hypertonicity where a sustained muscle contraction does not allow for any movement at a specified joint.
Tremor
Involuntary, rhythmic, oscillatory movements secondary to a basal ganglia lesion.
Agnosia
Inability to interpret information.
Agraphesthesia
Inability to recognize symbols, letters, or numbers traced on the skin.
Agraphia
Inability to write due to a lesion within the brain and typically found in combo with aphasia.
Alexia
Inability to read or comprehend written language secondary to a lesion within the dominant lobe of the brain.
Anosognosia
Denial or unawareness of one’s illness; often associated with unilateral neglect.
Aphasia
Inability to communicate verbally or comprehend due to damage to specific areas of the brain.
Apraxia
Inability to perform purposeful learned movements or activities even though there is no sensory or motor impairment that would hinder completion of the task.
Ideational Apraxia
Inability to formulate an initial motor plan and sequence tasks when the proprioceptive input needed to complete the task is impaired.
Ideomotor Apraxia
- Condition where person plans a movement or task, but cannot volitionally perform it.
- Automatic movement may occur, but person cannot impose additional movement on command.
Constructional Apraxia
- Inability to reproduce geometric figures and designs.
- Often unable to visually analyze how to perform a task.
Asterognosis
Inability to recognize objects by sense of touch.
Body Schema
Understanding the body as a whole and the relationship of its parts to the whole.
Decerebrate rigidity
- Corticospinal lesion at level of brainstem
- Extension of trunk and extremities
Decorticate rigidity
- Corticospinal lesion at level of diencephalon
- Trunks and LEs in extension and UEs in flexion
Diplopia
Double vision
Dysarthria
Slurred and impaired speech due to a motor deficit of the tongue or other essential speech muscles.
Dysphagia
Difficulty swallowing
Dysprosody
Impairment in the rhythm and inflection of speech.
Emotional lability
- Characteristic of R hemisphere infarct
- Inability to control emotions and outbursts of crying or laughing that are inconsistent with the situation.
Fluent aphasia
Characteristic of receptive aphasia where speech output is fine but words are jumbled and do not make sense.
Non-fluent aphasia
Characteristic of expressive aphasia where speech is non-functional, effortful and contains paraphasias.
- writing also impaired
Hemiparesis
Condition of weakness on one side of the body.
Hemiplegia
Condition of paralysis on one side of the body.
Homonymous Hemianopsia
The loss of the right or the left half of the field of vision in both eyes.
Neologism
Substitution within a word that is no severe that it makes the word unrecognizable.
Perseveration
The state of repeatedly performing the same segment of a task or repeatedly saying the same word/phrase without purpose.
Unilateral Neglect
- Inability to interpret stimuli and events on the contralateral side of a hemispheric lesion.
- Left-sided neglect is most common with a lesion to the right inferior parietal or superior temporal lobes.
