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Health and Lifespan > Neuropsychology > Flashcards

Neuropsychology Flashcards

1
Q

Neuropsychology

A 
Relationship between brain and behaviour
Alternative terms
	Biopsychology
	Biological psychology
	Physiological psychology
Focus: normal/healthy brain structure and function
Examines
	Gross anatomy of the brain
	Electrical processes (nerve impulses)
	Chemical processes (neurotransmitters)
	Brain development and ageing
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2
Q

Clinical neuropsychology is

A

neuropsych meets clinical psychology

> Essentially what clinical psychologists do, but with different clients
Clients: have some form of brain damage or dysfunction
Brain damage can be congenital - resulting from problems that occur during the brain’s development (foetal development)

> Damage can be acquired at any stage of life - during infancy, childhood, adolescence or in the adult years - through trauma or disease

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3
Q

Developmental disorders - examples

A

Congenital hypothyroidism
Child is born with an underactive thyroid gland (this gland regulates metabolic rate
and brain development)

Cerebral palsy
Caused by trauma to the brain during foetal development or at birth, leading to motor and postural problems

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4
Q

Acquired disorders - examples

A

During childhood - e.g. injury to the head (fall, bicycle accident), brain infection
(encephalitis), epilepsy

Adulthood - e.g. tumours, strokes, degenerative diseases

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5
Q

Functions affected by brain damage can be..

A 
Perceptual skills
	Motor abilities
	Cognitive abilities, e.g.
	Attention
	Language - speech and writing
	Memory
	Visuo-spatial skills
	Problem-solving skills
	Etc.
	Mood/emotional functioning
	Depression
	Anxiety
	Behaviour
	Aggressiveness
	Impulsivity
	Inappropriate behaviour
	All of which affect psychosocial functioning
	Ability to live independently
	Self-care
	Work/study
	Maintain friendships
	Manage finances
	Resume driving
Etc.
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6
Q

Neurons

A

Comprise of cell bodies and axons

In CNS, axons surrounded by glial cells, which form an insulating sheath - myelin

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7
Q

Electrical events

A

Info transmitted along axons via electrical event - action potential

Action potentials move between gaps in myelin, leading to faster transmission

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8
Q

Chemical events

A

Information transferred between neurons via chemical events

Neurotransmitters are released at the synapse, enabling messages to be transferred from one neuron to the next

Neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, etc.

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9
Q

‘Brain damage’ involves..

A

death of cells and/or disruption to their functioning

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10
Q

Death of cells

A

Variety of causes
Lack of blood, oxygen, glucose
Diseases or physical injury
Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease

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11
Q

Disruptions to neuronal functioning, affecting

A

Electrical transmission
e.g. multiple sclerosis - affects myelin
Neurotransmitters
e.g. Parkinson’s disease - substantia nigra (in midbrain), reduced dopamine
Neuronal functioning

Damage differs in a number of ways
Diffuse vs. focal
Static vs. progressive

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12
Q

Diffuse damage

A

Not concentrated in any specific region

Includes

Diffuse axonal damage (DAI) - affects axons/white matter

Diffuse vascular damage - affects blood vessels, causing diffuse widespread
bleeding in small blood vessels

General term: diffuse brain damage (DBD)

Leads to general/wide-reaching cognitive problems
Slower responses, less efficient information processing

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13
Q

Focal damage

A

> Concentrated in specific areas
Damage/’lesions’ often more visible and more easily detected using brain scans
Varies in size/amount
Usually leads to more specific cognitive problems, which vary according to the location of the damage

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14
Q

‘Static’/single/one-off events

A

Acute event

Examples:

> Traumatic brain injuries - e.g. motor vehicle accidents
Stroke
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Most damage occurs around the time of the injury/event; in the acute/early stages
Condition stabilises, improvement/recovery can occur

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15
Q

Dura

A

hard, solid, thick protective layer of brain

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16
Q

Arachnoid layer

A

fibrous membrane with blood vessels and cerebrospinal fluid (provides cushion)

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17
Q

Pia matter

A

thin layer that closely follows the outside of the brain

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18
Q

Sulci

A

grooves/fissures

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19
Q

Gyri

A

convolutions/folds (Sulci and Gyri provide important landmarks for functionality)

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20
Q

Association/secondary areas

A

> Adjacent to primary processing area
Process information from primary processing areas
Higher-order processing
Located next to primary areas

21
Q

Tertiary areas

A

> Between association areas
Combine info from association areas - higher-level processing
Complex – from a range of different sourse
eg. Language and memory

22
Q

Posterior regions

A

Occipital, parietal and temporal lobes

function: Input

23
Q

Anterior regions

A

Frontal lobes

Function: Output

24
Q

Regions connected by

A

> Short fibres - connect one part of a lobe to another
Association fibres - connect lobes located on the same side of the brain
Commissures - fibres that link two hemispheres (eg, corpus colosseum)

25
Q

Visual association area

A

> Adjacent to primary visual cortex
Receives info from primary visual cortex
Synthesises different types of visual information with memory
Undertakes higher-level visual processing, enabling us to perceive and recognise objects

26
Q

Primary visual cortex

Cortical blindness
A

Retina is intact but the visual processing is damaged

27
Q

Blindsight

optical lobe damage cont.

A

> Extensive damage (on both hemispheres), person reports being blind but still has very basic visual processing on the subcortical level (subconscious)

> Not common
Can perform basic visual tests but may say it was a guess (can differentiate an x over an o)

28
Q

Visual anosognosia

optical lobe damage cont.

A

Anosognosia = lack of awareness

Cortically blind person denies being blind, and tries to behave as if sighted

Confabulation - ‘make up’ excuses why they bump into things (not deliberately lying)
>The part of the brain that knows they are blind is damaged

29
Q

Visual agnosia

Visual association cortex damage (optical lobe damage cont.)

A

Agnosia = loss of knowledge

Problems specific to visual processing

Can recognise things using other senses - sound, touch (this is because tactile information processing not damaged)

Person may perceive the object in its parts (piecemeal), or

May perceive the whole object, but not recognise what it is

There are different types of visual agnosia

30
Q

Object agnosia

A

Inability to recognise common objects

31
Q

Colour agnosia

A

> Unable to distinguish between colours or to relate colours to objects
Black and white vision
Colour visuon is intact

32
Q

Prosopagnosia

A

Inability to recognise faces

33
Q

Parietal lobes

Primary somatosensory cortex
A

> Located along post-central gyrus
Receives somatosensory info - e.g. touch/pressure, temperature, pain, limb position/movement
Info received from the opposite side of the body (contra-lateral input)
Highly organised
Somatosensory homunculus
Hands and face are overrepresented proportionate to their size - because it is more important to have more sensory receptors on these things…

34
Q

Somatosensory association area

A

Adjacent to primary somatosensory area
Integrates sensory info
Combining and analysing sensory info
Recognition of objects by touch alone

35
Q

Tertiary processing area

A

Adjacent to Somatosensory association area
Integrates different types of sensory information
Visual, auditory, tactile and spatial information processed together

36
Q

Tactile agnosia (astereognosis

A

Inability to recognise things via touch

37
Q

Visual neglect/hemi-inattention

A

When a person neglects one side of space as if it doesn’t exist
Person does not pay attention to the opposite side to where the damage is
e.g. only dresses one side of their body, or shaves one side of their face
Doesn’t physically know that the “opposite side” of the world is there - harder to
compensate for as opposed to blindspots
Fail to attend one area of space

38
Q

Apraxia

A

Disorder affecting voluntary movement

Not attributable to:
Motor/physical problems
Problems comprehending
Motivation
39
Q

Dressing apraxia

A

> Specific form of apraxia
Person unable to coordinate movements to dress,wave goodbye, fold a letter, light a match
omit appropriate actions or fail to make any movement

40
Q

Temporal lobes

Important and varied functions
A

Auditory processing
Language
Memory
regulating emotional reaction

41
Q

Primary auditory cortex

A

> Located on superior temporal gyrus, adjacent to lateral fissure
Receives auditory information
Allows us to hear – both verbal and non

Auditory input is
Ipsilateral (same side) and
Contralateral (opposite side)
Mostly contralateral input

Organised according to tones - tonotopically organised
Anterior - high frequency
Posterior - low frequency
Damage can lead to different affects based on this

42
Q

Auditory association area

Right

A

Specialises in analysing non-verbal sounds

Music, other day-to-day sounds

43
Q

Auditory association area

Left

A

referred to as Wernicke’s area (all right handed people- ¬97% , most left handed people)
Specialises in processing speech
Comprehending speech

44
Q

Auditory association area

Wernicke’s aphasia (more common)

A

Aphasia means a language problem
May also have pure word deafness
Unable to comprehend speech
Have fluent (lots of output) but meaningless speech
Unaware that their speech is incomprehensible

Cannot repeat words or sentences
Might be able to read depending on how much damage there is - but may still struggle to attach meaning to words
45
Q

Auditory association area

Right-sided damage

A

Problems recognising non-verbal sounds
e.g. if there is a fire alarm you wouldn’t recognise that you should evacuate

Problems with processing music (amusia)

Is typically less disabling than left side due to our dependence on language

46
Q

Motor cortex

A

> Located on pre-central gyrus, anterior to central sulcus
Controls muscles/movement
Projections to neurons in spinal cord, which project to muscles >Highly organised
Contra-lateral control
Motor homunculus

47
Q

Pre-motor cortex

A

Located anterior to motor cortex
Selects, sequences, programs complex movements
Typing, speaking, ride bike, writing - pre-motor cortex ensures that everything happens in the right order

Broca’s area (left hemisphere)
Pre-motor cortex
Specialised for movements involved in speech and writing

48
Q

Prefrontal cortex

A

Last part of the brain to fully mature (25ish)
Rich connections with all other areas of the brain
Responsible for very high level functions: ‘executive functions’
Executive functions - impact on everything
Intact executive functions needed to function independently
Responsible for
Working memory/attention
Integrating information
Regulating behaviour
Formulating plans
What steps we need to do, in what order
Executing plans
Monitoring and modifying
If it looks like what we’re doing is not going to achieve what we want, we modify what we do

49
Q

Behavioural regulation

A

Ability to start, stop and change, as needed – flexibility
Cannot learn from experience
Perseveration - repeat a response when no longer appropriate
Do not adapt to change
Cannot inhibit behaviour
Fail to comply with instructions

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