Intro to neuro - terms Flashcards
What is dyskinesia?
- difficulty in performing voluntary muscle movements
- impairment in ability to control movements
- characterized by spasmodic or repetitive motions or lack of coordination
- fragmented or jerky movements
What is bradykinesia?
- slow movement
- slowness in execution of movement
What is akinesia?
- inability to initiate movement
- due to problems selecting and activating motor programs in the brain
What is rigidity?
- an increase in resistance to passive movement
- responsible for characteristic flexed position
- slowness of voluntary movement: swinging of the arms while walking
- voluntary action may be briefly regained during an emergency: pt is able to leap aside to avoid oncoming vehicle
What is chorea?
- “to dance” in greek
- brief irregular contractions not repetitive or rhythmic but appear to flow from one muscle to another
- occurs without conscious effort
- assoc with Huntington’s
What is ballism?
- severe chorea
- slight movements become thrashing motions
- odd postures
- leg movements
What is dysarthria?
- any of certain disorders of articulation caused by impairment of muscles used in speech, such as stammering or stuttering, caused by a nerve defect
What is allodynia?
- condition in which ordinarily painless stimulus is experienced as being painful
What is akathisia?
- motor restlessness, inability to sit still
What is cataplexy?
- muscular weakness resulting in sudden loss of postural tone, often triggered by an emotional stimulus and resulting in falls to the floor, can be seen in *narcolepsy
What is cogwheeling?
- ratchet like movement due to superimposition of tremor on rigidity
What is facial masking (hypomimia)?
- decreased facial expression due to rigidity of facial muscles
What is fasciculation?
- spontaneous firing of an axon resulting in a visible twitch of all the muscle fibers it contacts; indicative of denervation
What is festination?
- an involuntary tendency to take short accelerating steps in walking that occur in parkinson’s
What is freezing?
- sudden, brief cessation of movement, common in parkinson’s
What is korsakoff syndrome?
- chronic phase of thiamine deficiency characterized by impairment in establishing new memories and retrieving previous memories, occurring most commonly in alcoholics
What is myoclonus?
- sudden, shock like, jerking contraction of a group of muscles
What is oculogyric crisis?
- acute dystonic rxn to neuroleptic drugs manifested by sudden sustained twisting of the head and upward deviation of the eyes; responsive to anticholinergic or antihistamine meds
What is the on-off phenomenon?
- sudden, unpredictable changes in motor performance by pts on levodopa therapy
What is palsy?
- paralysis of muscle group
What is paraplegia?
- paralysis of both legs
What is penumbra?
- area surrounding the dense core of irreversibly damaged cells that has preserved ionic homeostasis and reduced neuronal electrical activity but that is capable of recovery
Tardive?
- sxs that develop slowly or appear long after inception, ex: tardive dyskinesia occurring after chronic exposure to dopamine antagonists
What is a tic?
- repetitive, stereotyped, simple or complex movements that can be voluntarily suppressed for short periods of time (eye blinking or throat clearing)
Torticollis?
- form of dystonia in which neck muscles contract involuntarily, causing head to turn
Wearing off phenomenon?
- waning of effects of a dose of levodopa prior to the scheduled time for the next dose, resulting in decreased motor performance
What is fluent aphasia (Wernicke’s or receptive aphasia)?
- impairment of language comprehension including impaired repetition due to lesion of posterior left superior temporal gyrus
Athetosis?
- twisting and writhing movements
Dystonia?
- sustained muscle contractions causing twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal postures
What is oromandibular dystonia?
- sustained muscle contractions of the jaw and tongue, distortion of mouth and tongue
Wat is facial and cervical dystonia?
- face muscles causing face to pull to one side
- cervicle: neck muscles causing head to rotate to one side or pull down toward the chest
What is a blepharispasm?
- spasm of eye muscles
- repetitive blinking
What is spastic dystonia?
- muscles of larynx spasms
- voice is broke or whispered
