Neuropsychology & Clinical Disorders Flashcards
Ablation (extirpation)
Surgically induced brain lesions (used commonly in lab animals)
May be used to implant electrodes which are then used to apply heat, cold, or electric impulse
Case studies
Usually not isolated to specific brain structures –> difficult to attribute a functional impairment to a specific structure
Stereotaxic instrument
Device used to locate brain areas when electrodes are implanted to make lesions or stimulate nervous activity
Wilder Penfield
Penfield stimulated patients’ cortex with electrode; mapped out different areas on brain’s surface
Did this before performing surgery
Hubel and Wiesel
Single-cell recording; insert ultrasensitive microelectrodes into single brain cells, monitors ongoing activity rather than introducing new electrical activity
Hubel and Weisel recorded this activity in cats’ visual cortex
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
Noninvasive, measures broad patterns of electrical activity, records activity of large number of neurons
Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF)
Noninvasive, detects broad patterns of neural activity based on increased blood flow to different parts of the brain
Scanning devices used: CAT scans, PET scans, MRIs
A. R. Luria
Wrote about many clinical disorders of neuropsychology
Russian neurologist
Anterograde amnesia
Damage or removal of hippocampus (limbicsystem)
Agnosia
Affects perceptual recognition
Visual association areas are affected
Apraxia
Impairment in the organization of motor action
Action may become fragmented and disorganized
Association areas are affected
Dementia
Loss of intellectual functioning
Examples:
Alzheimer’s- progressive memory loss
Huntington’s and Parkinson’s also present symptoms of dementia (however, not as severe as Alzheimer’s and motor symptoms are more severe)
