Key question - Memory helping understand dementia

Question 1

What is dementia + what are the effects?

Answer 1

Dementia is the loss of thinking, remembering, + reasoning. Loss of cognitive functioning

Personalities may change, + struggle to control emotions

Affects daily life + past memories

Question 2

What makes up the cerebral cortex?

Answer 2

Frontal lobes, parietal lobes, temporal lobes, + occipital lobes

Question 3

Whats the role of the frontal lobes?

Answer 3

Decision-making, problem solving, planning, behaviour

Question 4

What are parietal lobes used for?

Answer 4

Sensory info (space, size, movement)

Question 5

What do the temporal lobes control?

Answer 5

Memory, hearing, language

Question 6

Whats the role of occipital lobes?

Answer 6

Visual info

Question 7

Explain what the brain stem is used for:

Answer 7

Basic life functions - breathing, heart rate, etc

Question 8

What is the cerebellum used for?

Answer 8

Controls movement, posture, + balance

Question 9

What makes up the limbic system?

Answer 9

Hippocampus, amygdala

Question 10

Whats the role of amygdala + how does dementia affect it?

Answer 10

Emotion

Alzheimers may recall feelings about person, event, etc, but not the memory itself

Question 11

Whats the role of hippocampus + how does dementia affect it?

Answer 11

Forms + holds memories

Affected first by alzheimers, new memories lost 1st since older memories rely on hippocampus less

Question 12

How can u help dementia?

Answer 12

Lists, diaries, calendars, photos, visual + verbal aids

Question 13

What is cognitive stimulation?

Answer 13

Involves patients playing games, solving puzzles, + discussing

Often, activities are linked to memories

Question 14

How does cognitive stimulation help dementia patients?

Answer 14

• Works best for mild to moderate dementia patients, slows down progression
• Reduces stress + loneliness
• Stimulates episodic memory in LTM

Question 15

What is validation therapy?

Answer 15

Instead of forcing dementia patients to live in our reality, we live in theirs

Question 16

How does validation therapy help dementia patients?

Answer 16

• Increases empathy, trust, + reduces anxiety
• Activates older schemas - helps them reconstruct memory easier to fit into schema, since they have past knowledge

Can remember skills better from their reality rather than learning new skills in ours

Question 17

What are the links to theories of memory?

Answer 17

Look in booklet

Question 18

What study did Baddeley do + what were the results?

Answer 18

Did dual task experiments between young, elderly, + alzheimers patients - used verbal + visual tasks

When tasks performed separately, alzheimers ppts didnt differ but when tasks done together, showed significant impairment

Question 19

What did results of Baddeley’s study show?

Answer 19

Central executive responsible for organising tasks - shows executive functioning problems]

Backs up theory of WMM

Question 20

What did Kenealy discover?

Answer 20

Ppts recalled more when in same mood than in diff mood

Environmental cues can help dementia patient carers to ask specific questions not general ones

Question 21

What does Kenealy’s discovery back up?

Answer 21

Tulving’s theory of semantic + episodic memory in LTM

Question 22

Why might cognitive strategies not be helpful for dementia?

Answer 22

Medicines developed to temporarily get rid of symptoms + slow down progression - shows dementia is biologically caused