Nervous System Flashcards
Affect
A person’s external expression of his/her inner emotional state
Afferent pupillary defect (Marcus-Gunn pupil)
Continued pupillary dilation instead of constriction in the eye with a pre-chiasmic optic pathway lesion (optic neuritis) in response to shining a light in the damaged eye after first shining it in the normal eye
Agraphia
Loss of ability to express oneself in writing due to a central lesion, or to muscular incoordination
Akathisia (acathisia)
Inability to sit down because the thought of doing so causes severe anxiety; patient has a feeling of restlessness and an urgent need of movement and complains of a feeling of muscular quivering
Akinesia
Complete or partial loss of muscle movement
Antalgic
Refers to a behavior used to limit pain
Aphasia
Inability to express oneself properly through speech, or loss of verbal comprehension; it is considered to be complete or total when both sensory and motor areas are involved
Ataxia
Impaired ability to coordinate muscular movement usually associated with staggering gait and postural imbalance
Athetosis
Slow, twisting, writhing movements, with larger amplitude than chorea, commonly involving the hands
Bell palsy
An acute paralysis or weakness of one side of the face that is temporary
Cerebral palsy
A general name for a large group of persisting, non-progressive motor disorders appearing in young children and resulting from brain damage caused by birth trauma or intrauterine pathology
Chorea
Dance-like, involuntary, rapid movements; can be associated with Huntington disease, rheumatic fever, systemic lupus erythematosus, and other conditions
Clonus
Rapidly alternating involuntary contraction and relaxation of skeletal muscles
Dementia
Irrecoverable deteriorative mental state, the common end result of many entities; loss of memory and other intellectual functions that is of sufficient severity to interfere with daily functioning
Diplopia
Double vision caused by defective function of the extraocular muscles or a disorder of the nerves that innervate the muscles
Dysarthria
Defective articulation secondary to a motor deficit involving the lips, tongue, palate, or pharynx; inability to pronounce or articulate words
Dysdiadochokinesia
Inability to quickly substitute antagonistic motor impulses to produce antagonistic muscular movements; inability to perform rapid alternating movements (pronation/supination of hands); indicates cerebellar dysfunction
Dysesthesia
Sensations, as of the pricks of pins and needles, or crawling
Dyskinesia
Defect in voluntary movement; term usually used in relation to various extrapyramidal disorders
Dysphasia
Impairment of speech resulting from a brain lesion
Dysphonia
Difficulty in speaking; hoarseness; often related to weakness of laryngeal muscles, in which sound production is impaired
Dystonia
Impaired or disordered tonicity, especially muscle tone (involuntary muscle spasms)
Encephalitis
Acute inflammation of the brain and spinal cord
Fasciculations
Localized, uncoordinated twitching of a single muscle group innervated by a single motor nerve filament; visible or palpable (involuntary)
Fluent aphasia (Wernicke’s or receptive aphasia)
Fluent, effortless speech; words are malformed, may be totally incomprehensible; can hear words but cannot relate them to previous experiences; impairment of language comprehension including impaired repetition due to lesion of the posterior left superior temporal gyrus
Graphesthesia
Ability to recognize symbols, shapes, numbers, and letters traced on the skin
Hemianopia
Blindness for half the field of vision in one or both eyes (indicating a pathological process posterior to the optic chiasm)
Hemiballismus
Jerking and twitching movements of one side of the body (involuntary violent flinging or jerking of a limb or limbs in an uncoordinated manner caused by a lesion of the contralateral subthalamus)
Meningitis
Inflammation of the meninges
Multiple sclerosis
Progressive autoimmune disorder which causes a degeneration of the myelin sheath of the brain’s white matter
Myelitis
Inflammation of the spinal cord or of bone marrow
Myelomeningocele (spina bifida)
Congenital defect of the spine that allows the spinal contents to protrude
Myelopathy
Any pathological condition of the spinal cord
Myoclonus
Twitching or clonic spasm of a muscle or group of muscles
Myopathy
Any disease or abnormal condition of striated muscle (weakness that is usually proximal > distal)
Non-fluent aphasia (Broca’s or expressive aphasia)
Cannot express oneself using language; few words; laborious effort; primarily uses nouns and verbs (eat pie, get mail); fair to good word comprehension (due to a lesion of the left inferior frontal lobe)
Nuchal rigidity
Stiff neck
Paralysis
Temporary suspension or permanent loss of function (especially loss of sensation or voluntary motion)
Paresis
Partial or incomplete paralysis
Paresthesia
Unusual sensation such as numbness, tingling, or burning
Peripheral neuropathy
Condition commonly seen in diabetes of the peripheral nervous system resulting in a decrease in both motor and sensory function
Stereognosis
Ability to recognize form of solid objects by touch
Stroke (cerebrovascular accident - CVA)
Sudden disruption of blood flow to the brain
Tremor
Involuntary movement of a part or parts of the body resulting from alternate contractions of opposite muscles; trembling may be fine or coarse, rapid or slow, may appear on movement (intention tremor) or improve when the part is employed
