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Neurobiology of Mental Illness > Lecture 1 - Introduction > Flashcards

Lecture 1 - Introduction Flashcards

1
Q

What is mental illness?

A

Deviation from behavioural norm that disrupts daily function, mood, cognition and behaviour.

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2
Q

What is a neurological disorder?

A

One which is characterised by deficits to nerves or the nervous system.

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3
Q

What is a psychiatric disorder?

A

One which represents or relates to mental illness (behaviour or thinking deficits).

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4
Q

What are the causes of unreliable diagnosis of mental illness?

A
  • Inconsistent symptoms within the same patient
  • Inconsistent classification of symptoms by clinicians.
  • Inadequacy of nomenclature in questionnaires (attempt to define vague concepts)
  • No objective or biological marker for each condition.
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5
Q

What is a biomarker?

A

An objective indicator of normal biological processes, pathogenic processes or pharmacological responses to therapeutic interventions.

National Institute for Health, (1998)

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6
Q

What is an endophenotype?

A

A type of biomarker - a biological trait which is highly heritable, that can reflect particular biological conditions or processes.

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7
Q

What must a trait or marker be if it is to be considered an endophenotype?

A
  • heritable
  • state-independent (represents traits at all times)
  • higher rate of manifestation within affected families than the general population.
  • can be measured reliably and is specific to the illness.
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8
Q

What does ASSR stand for?

A

Auditory steady state response

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9
Q

What is the ASSR?

A

Currently the only applied objective marker.

It is the spike in EEG activity which occurs when the brain registers an auditory stimulus.

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10
Q

What is the auditory threshold?

A

The lowest signal intensity at which the signal can be identified 50% of the time.

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11
Q

Describe the features of the ID.

A
  • present from birth
  • follows pleasure principle
  • keeps us alive, drives reproductive behaviour, and is responsible for our desires, bodily needs and impulses.
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12
Q

What is the pleasure principle?

A

The seeking of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

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13
Q

Describe the Ego.

A
  • Develops later
  • Follows reality principle
  • prevents engagement in altercations which would otherwise be caused by the ID.
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14
Q

What is the reality principle?

A

Seeks to appease the ID’s drive in plausible ways that will have long term benefits.

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15
Q

How did Freud relate his ideas about the ID and Ego with mental illness?

A

He suggested that the ego’s job is to redirect the ID, and that mental illnesses develop when the Ego exerts too much control, or not enough, over the ID.

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16
Q

What is the proposed extent of control that the Ego has over the ID?

A

Ego cannot stop the ID, or make it want something else - can only rearrange it’s direction.

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17
Q

How does the superego relate to mental illness, as suggested by Freud?

A

The superego only develops in some people. It’s function is not necessary or relevant for mental illness, according to Freud.

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18
Q

Who was the free energy principle created by?

A

Carl Friston

19
Q

What is the free energy principle?

A

Idea that the brain works to maximise efficiency by making predictions about the environment and related events. This means that some stimuli do not have to be processed fully, releasing and increasing capacity for unexpected events/stimuli.

Assumes that the brain uses internal models to predict incoming sensory input and uses neural activity to minimise prediction errors.

20
Q

How can the free energy principle explain anxiety?

A

Expectations regarding events and stimuli are too low/very rigid, leading to expectations being broken frequently - constant prediction errors.

21
Q

How can the free energy principle explain hallucinations and delusions in schizophrenia?

A

Consistent disruptions in lower level prediction-error firing, which cannot be rejected by typical higher level processes.

22
Q

What does cognitive control refer to?

A

Processes that allow us to flexibly adapt our behaviour according to our internal goals and external environmental demands. Enables control of thoughts, feelings and actions.

23
Q

Describe the interaction between the sensory system and cognitive control.

A

The sensory system takes in information from the outside world. The control system then directs the sensory system back towards the relevant information, and away from irrelevant information.

24
Q

Cognitive control has parallels with which Freudian concept?

A

The ego

25
Q

Cognitive disorders are likely to occur due to what mechanism?

A

An abnormal connectivity or communication between cognitive control networks.

26
Q

What is structural connectivity?

A

White matter tracts that connect different parts of the brain. The physical links between two brain areas.

27
Q

What is functional connectivity?

A

Correlation between activity in one brain area compared to another.

28
Q

What are the aspects of the brain investigated by structural studies?

A
  • size of a region
  • integrity of tracts
  • amount of receptors
  • myelination
29
Q

What are aspects of the brain investigated by functional studies?

A
  • task related activation

- resting state activation

30
Q

What does EEG measure?

A

Activity of neurons - potentials.

31
Q

What are the two types of activity EEG can measure, describe each.

A

Synchronous or desynchronous.

Synchronous - simultaneous potentials from large groups of neurons.

Desynchronous - scattered potentials, when neurons are not firing together.

32
Q

Does synchronous or desynchronous activity lead to larger EEG signals?

A

Synchronous - larger signals.

Desynchronous - smaller signals

33
Q

Describe the event related averaging approach.

A

Object is shown over and over. Activity present when the object is not shown is subtracted from overall activity when object is shown. This leaves the brain response for the object alone.

34
Q

What does the timing of brain response reveal about the response itself?

A

The earlier the response, the more basic level it is. The later it is, the more cognitive processing that has occurred.

35
Q

What does SES stand for?

A

Socioeconomic status

36
Q

How does SES play a role in mental illness treatment?

A

Socioeconomic status influences the resources you have access to. Can determine how often you’re able to see the doctor, whether you get time off from work, quality of treatment and overall outcome.

37
Q

What’s an advantage of resting state studies?

A

Means that patients can avoid a potentially taxing or stressful task. Much easier for them to come and sit and do nothing while their activity is measured.

38
Q

What are two disadvantages of resting state studies?

A
  • It may be difficult to identify differences in activity between patients if the pathophysiology of a condition is too subtle. May only be evident when completing a specific task/activating a certain region.
  • Difficult to regulate and standardise the extent of resting that each PPS does. One participant may be planning an essay in their head, while another may be on the cusp of falling asleep, making brain activity incomparable.
39
Q

What does MMN stand for, and what is it?

A

Mismatch negativity.

A component of ERP that signals brain response to violations of a rule/a surprising event or object.

40
Q

What does CHR stand for?

A

(refers to patients that are)Clinical high risk

41
Q

What does ESZ stand for?

A

Early illness schizophrenia (patients)

42
Q

What did Perez et al., (2014) find about differences in MMN between CHR and ESZ individuals? What does this suggest/tell us?

A
  • No significant differences between CHR and ESZ
  • However, MMN was significantly reduced in CHR and ESZ patients relative to healthy controls.
  • MMN also reduced in CHR patients that converted to psychotic disorders, compared to those CHR patients that did not.

Suggests that neuropsychological mechanisms responsible for automatic processing of auditory deviance are affected before the onset of psychosis, and can therefore increase the accuracy of psychosis prediction in CHR patients.

43
Q

What does DMN stand for and what is it?

A

Default mode networks

Regions of the brain that show high activity/BOLD signals during resting states, but that deactivate during goal-directed cognition.

Neurobiology of Mental Illness (10 decks)

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