Key question - Memory helping understand dementia Flashcards
(22 cards)
What is dementia + what are the effects?
Dementia is the loss of thinking, remembering, + reasoning. Loss of cognitive functioning
Personalities may change, + struggle to control emotions
Affects daily life + past memories
What makes up the cerebral cortex?
Frontal lobes, parietal lobes, temporal lobes, + occipital lobes
Whats the role of the frontal lobes?
Decision-making, problem solving, planning, behaviour
What are parietal lobes used for?
Sensory info (space, size, movement)
What do the temporal lobes control?
Memory, hearing, language
Whats the role of occipital lobes?
Visual info
Explain what the brain stem is used for:
Basic life functions - breathing, heart rate, etc
What is the cerebellum used for?
Controls movement, posture, + balance
What makes up the limbic system?
Hippocampus, amygdala
Whats the role of amygdala + how does dementia affect it?
Emotion
Alzheimers may recall feelings about person, event, etc, but not the memory itself
Whats the role of hippocampus + how does dementia affect it?
Forms + holds memories
Affected first by alzheimers, new memories lost 1st since older memories rely on hippocampus less
How can u help dementia?
Lists, diaries, calendars, photos, visual + verbal aids
What is cognitive stimulation?
Involves patients playing games, solving puzzles, + discussing
Often, activities are linked to memories
How does cognitive stimulation help dementia patients?
- Works best for mild to moderate dementia patients, slows down progression
- Reduces stress + loneliness
- Stimulates episodic memory in LTM
What is validation therapy?
Instead of forcing dementia patients to live in our reality, we live in theirs
How does validation therapy help dementia patients?
- 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
What are the links to theories of memory?
Look in booklet
What study did Baddeley do + what were the results?
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
What did results of Baddeley’s study show?
Central executive responsible for organising tasks - shows executive functioning problems]
Backs up theory of WMM
What did Kenealy discover?
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
What does Kenealy’s discovery back up?
Tulving’s theory of semantic + episodic memory in LTM
Why might cognitive strategies not be helpful for dementia?
Medicines developed to temporarily get rid of symptoms + slow down progression - shows dementia is biologically caused
