Neuropsychological Domains Flashcards
Posner and Petersen (2012) neurobiological models of attention
The posterior network has to do with orienting and shifting attention in the environment
The anterior system serves as the detection subsystem (or executive attention subsystem) and involves detecting stimuli either from sensory events or from memory (i.e., signal detection)
The alerting network (subserved by the ascending reticular activating system [ARAS]), can influence both anterior and posterior networks, operating at high or low levels of arousal
Memory encoding
Active organization or manipulation of incoming stimuli, such as through rehearsal and repetition
Memory consolidation
Process by which encoded information undergoes a series of processes that render the memory representations progressively more stable and permanent
Sensory memory
Holds information only 1–2 seconds for “iconic” (visual) and 3–4 seconds for “echoic” (auditory)
Short-Term Memory
Limited capacity of 7 +/- 2 items (Ebbinghaus); temporary store whereby information can be held for up to several minutes; often equated with working memory and attention
Long-Term Memory
A more permanent memory store where information is stored by way of consolidation or learning. It requires the hippocampus where structural change takes place due to long-term potentiation (LTP). Not as chronologically old as remote memory
Remote memory
Old memories, which are thought to be more stable or resilient to damage and disease than recent memory
Declarative Memory (Explicit)
Memory system concerned with the conscious retrieval or recognition of contextually related information or episodes
Semantic memory
Knowledge of facts
Episodic memory
Knowledge of temporal events; autobiographical
Prospective Memory
Remembering to do something at a particular time in the future. It is a process that also involves executive abilities and frontal systems. Declines with age.
Non-Declarative Memory (Implicit
or Procedural)
A memory system that is responsible for skills, procedures, habits, and classically conditioned responses and takes place largely without awareness
Retroactive interference
What’s being affected? Retro/old info
A process by which recently learned information interferes with the ability to remember previously learned information
Proactive interference
What’s being affected/interfered? Pro (more recent)
A process by which previously learned information interferes with new or current learning
Retrograde Amnesia
amnesia for events prior to an accident, illness, or event;
typically temporally graded, whereby events immediately before are lost, whereas more remote memories remain intact. Ribot’s Law states that the oldest memories are the most
resistant to amnesia.
Studies have underscored an association between severity of retrograde amnesia and extent of hippocampal pathology.
Anterograde Amnesia
inability to learn or encode new information or form new
memories.
Post-Traumatic Amnesia (PTA) is a type of anterograde amnesia. The length of PTA is one of the best indicators
of TBI severity/long term outcome.
Functional Amnesia
a.k.a. psychogenic amnesia, including fugue
psychiatric etiology, rather than one caused by physical injury.
Retrograde amnesia can include personal identity and/or be limited to autobiographical memory. It is often triggered by an emotionally traumatic event.
Infantile Amnesia
failure to recall autobiographical information from early childhood
years; thought to be a normal part of development.
Transient Global Amnesia
etiology usually due to hypoperfusion of medial temporal
can also occur after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
acute-onset memory loss that typically lasts for less than ten hours (but can last days) and results in profound anterograde amnesia and variable retrograde amnesia.
Wernicke-Korsakoff’s Syndrome
occurs as a result of chronic alcohol use and thiamine deficiency.
Korsakoff’s syndrome involves a diencephalic (thalamus and hypothalamus) amnesia that results in both anterograde and retrograde amnesia (loss of remote memory), proactive interference, temporal order impairment, confabulation, and poor insight.
It is also associated with gait ataxia, oculomotor palsy, and encephalopathy
Describe the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)
scored between 3 and 15, with 3 being the worst and 15 the best
It is composed of 3 parameters: eye response, verbal response, and motor response
Impairment: mild 13-15, moderate 9-12, severe 3-8
Positive predictive value (PPV) is defined as
the true positives divided by (true positives plus false positives)
The concept of “organicity” refers to what kind of theory?
domain-general theory -
is an older term referring to the presence of brain damage, or abnormal cerebral function. It refers to a concept of whole-brain involvement, rather than specific, regional dysfunction of specific bran centers and corresponding discrete functional impairment (localization model).
How should below average scores be labeled?
low (not impaired, abnormal, or deficient) , following the AACN paper
