Lecture 22

Question 1

Speech production and broca’s area

Answer 1

Damage to broca’s area causes difficulty in expressing

Slow laborious and nonfluent speech

Have something to say, cant say it

Aware and frustrated with their condition

Broca’s aphasia

Question 2

3 issues ion Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 2

Articulation problems
agrammatism
anomia

Question 3

Agrammatism

Answer 3

Difficulty with grammatical devices such as verb endings and conjugations

Don’t derive meaning from the sequence of words or the grammar of sentences

Almost only use content words with no function words

Can comprehend better than speak but there are comprehension problems

2 pics, cow kicks horse, horse kicks cow. They choose one or the other, do not derive meaning from the differences

Question 4

Content/function words

Answer 4

Content noun, verb, adjective or adverb that contains meaning

Function preposition, article or other word that conveys no meaning but is important for the grammatical structure

Question 5

Anomia

Answer 5

Difficulty in finding the appropriate word

Question 6

Anomic aphasia/circumlocation

Answer 6

Have a hard time thinking of the word they want to say

Understand it fine

Do circumlocution: find alternate ways to say something when they cannot think of the word they wish to say

Question 7

Mixed transcortical aphasia

Answer 7

Can repeat, cant talk

Question 8

Global aphasia

Answer 8

Cant talk

Question 9

Subvocal articulation

Answer 9

When we talk in our heads there is often subvocal articulations) Very slight movements of the muscles used in speech that do not cause obvious movements

When a person looks at two drawings and says whether the items rhyme, imaging shows broca;s activates cos person says the words sub vocally

Question 10

Stuttering

Answer 10

Disrupts normal flow if speech

Can speak without - when singing for instance or when chilled. Worse with anxiety

Problem selecting, initiating and executing the motor sequences required for fluent speech

1% of population. Gene factors. 3x aqs many males (young boys)

No known neural basis

No obvious problems

fMRI shows small differences in the activity and the timing of activity of the left and right hemispheres, esp in broca’s Wernicke’s and the primary motor cortex

Question 11

Writing depends on knowing

Answer 11

The words you want to use

Grammatic structure

Specific motor commands for the hand

Question 12

Dysgraphia

Answer 12

trouble writing

damage in brain can casue specific issues eg

cant write: numbers, lowercase, vowels, print. etc

Question 13

Phonological dysgraphia

Answer 13

People cant spell words by sounding them out

Imagine how they look to spell them

Cannot write non words that sound fine like blint or vak

Question 14

Orthographic

Answer 14

condition where people cannot spell words by visualizing them

Common in people with damage to VWFA

Can only sound words out and so cannot spell words with irregular spelling like half or busy

Question 15

Traumatic brain injury

Answer 15

TBI

Question 16

Closed head injury

Answer 16

Blow to head with blunt object

Brain hits skull coup

recoils in opposite direction and smashes against the other side contrecoup

Question 17

Open head injuries

Answer 17

Penetrating brain injuries cause damage to the affected area but also

blood vessel damage deprives brain of oxygen

Accumulation of blood and CSF can cause increased pressure

Question 18

Seizure disorder causes (1)

Answer 18

Most common cause is scarring which can be caused by an injury or a stroke, a tumor or developmental abnormality within the brain

Also GABA agonist withdrawal

Or fever in young kids

Question 19

Seizure causes (2) genes etc

Answer 19

Are gene factors

Usually not

In the past idiopathic but today not due to advanced scanning etc

Question 20

Seizure disorder

Answer 20

Preferred term for epilepsy

Can cause convulsions, don’t always

Question 21

Partial (focal seizure)

Answer 21

Begins at a focus
Remains localized
Does not generalize

Simple = conscious
Complex = unconscious

Question 22

Development of seizure prgression

Answer 22

Every one makes the next more likely and recruits more brain

After 1st docs are conservative

After 2nd = life long medication to avoid this spread

Question 23

Grand mal

Answer 23

Aura - sensation precedes and heralds a seizure

Tonic phase - extreme muscle contraction, can break bones

Clonic phase - second phase, jerking movements

Question 24

Absence seizures

Answer 24

Kids

Stare into space

Rhythmic wave of activities from front to back and returning

Takes 3 seconds so seizure is a multiple of 3 seconds usually

Often kids grow out of it at puberty

Question 25

Cllassification

Answer 25

Generalized:

Tonic-clonic (grand mal)

Absence (petit mal)

Atonic (loss of muscle tone, unconscious)

Partial:

Simple

Localized motor seizure
Motor seizure
Sensory
Psychic (like emotions due to amygdala of forced thoughts)
Autonomic

Complex (same as above with altered consciousness)

Question 26

Treatment

Answer 26

Anticonvulsive drugs

Benzos - allosteric gaba agonists

Mostly this is enough for patient to have a normal life, neurons still misbehaving but inhibited so irrelevant

If not, induce seizure, scan to see affected area, remove surgically

Usually the neurons around the bad ones are adapted to deal with the,> after removal, can get back to business so cognitive improvement

Can cut back part of corpus callosum too