Physiology Flashcards
Shrinking Retrograde Amnesia
The recovery of long-term memories following a TBI, in which distant memories are returned first.
What’s the difference between rods and cones in vision?
Cones- bright light, visual acuity and perception of color.
Rods- peripheral vision and vision in dim light.
What regions of the brain differ in size in children with comormid ADHD and Tourette’s DX from children with only Tourette’s Disorder and why?
Basel ganglia is the affected area that plays a role in motor learning, executive function, behaviors and emotions. Children with Tourette’s don’t all necessarily struggle with learning, impulse control and emotion regulation problems as those who have ADHD.
Diagnostic Criteria for Lewy bodies
- Fluctuating cognition that involves changes in attention and alertness
- Recurrent visual hallucinations
- Spontaneous Parkinsonism
Diagnostic Criteria for Frontotemporal Neurocognitive Disorder
- Perseverative, stereotyped, compulsive/ritualistic behavior (often put things in mouth and eating objects)
- Loss of judgment and social inhibition
- Lack of interest, apathy
- Changes in eating habits (sweets and carbohydrates)
List 3 regions of the prefrontal cortex and describe symptoms if these areas are damaged.
Ventromedial- poor decision-making, lack of empathy, blunted emotional responses, confabulation (He’s VACANT, a shell.)
Dorsolateral- defects in working memory(dolphins have a good memory), impaired judgment and insight, poor planning ability (He’s lacks self awareness and doesn’t plan well… kind of DUMB.)
Orbitofrontal- Impulsivity, aggression and antisocial Bx, inhibition, emotional lability. (He’s such an #%^*! He sends me into orbit!)
List and defined the four dopaminergic pathways in the brain.
Mesolimbic – reward circuit that controls emotions, responsible for reward-seeking behaviors.
Mesocortical – involved in executive cognitive functions
Tuberoinfundibular– hormone regulation
Nigrostriatal- production of movement
Describe the James-Lang theory of emotion
First you perceive a stimulus, we respond to the stimulus with arousal and behavior, then we experience emotion as we become aware of our bodily reactions. It instead of thinking “we run because we’re afraid.” this theory says “we’re afraid because we run.”
What is “Anosognosia”
Caused by damage to the right parietal lobe, and his characterized by a lack of awareness of one’s own physical disability.
What anti-convulsant drug is prescribed often for those with bipolar disorder who have not responded to lithium or cannot tolerate side effects?
Carbamazepine
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex
Executive control: Task switching, planning, problem-solving, and working memory
Attention: Goal-driven attention and attention allocation
Emotion: Emotion regulation and the generation of skin sympathetic nerve activity (SSNA), which increases during anxiety or emotional arousal
Decision-making: Self-control and deliberate decision-making
Other: Exercise tolerance, reward seeking, and memory formation
Orbitofrontal Prefrontal Cortex
Acts as a critical frontal area that informs downstream regions of the need to suppress behavior.
Anterior Mid-cingulate Cortex
A network hub in the brain that plays a role in cognitive motor control, tenacity, and processing physiological needs
Think of motor car loosing control after seeing antlers, deer in the forest who are tenacious at meeting their physiological needs.
What brain structure when damaged affects behaviors that look similar to alcohol intoxication, some of those being clumsiness and slurred speach.
Cerebellum
How is each hemisphere involved in emotion regulation and if one were damaged how would it present itself?
Left hemisphere processes, positive emotions can produce depression, emotional volatility, a.k.a. Catastrophic reaction
Right Hemisphere processes negative emotions and damage can cause inappropriate indifference and euphoria
What’s the main distinction between primary and secondary hypertension?
When the cause of elevated blood pressure is or is NOT known.
Primary hypertension, the cause is unknown.
Secondary hypertension, the cause is associated with another health condition.
What is the patient HM surgery known for?
HM (Henry Molaison) had surgery to treat severe epilepsy which involved the removal of his medial temporal lobes and in result developed an inability to form new, long-term declarative memories.
What is the first line drug for GAD?
SSRIs and SNRIs are first-line drugs. However, when symptoms do not respond to these, the next drug of choice is buspirone and then next benzodiazepines.
What is risperidone used for?
Atypical antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or irritability associated with autistic disorder.
What is valproic acid used for?
Epilepsy treatment across different seizure types, bipolar disorder management, and migraine prophylaxis.
What is propanolol used for?
High blood pressure, irregular, heartbeats, shaking tremors, and other conditions. It is also used to prevent heart pain and can be useful to help manage performance anxiety.
Lazarus’s Cognitive appraisal theory of emotion
They distinguish between three types of appraisal:
primary- interpretation of stressors
secondary- analysis of resources
reappraisal- overcoming of stress/coping
Symptoms caused by a stroke that involve the middle cerebral artery in the dominant hemisphere.
-Contralateral hemapheresis (weakness on opposite side of the body)
-Contralateral homonymous hemianopia (visual field defect)
-Dysarthria (slurred speech)
-aphasia
Symptoms caused by a stroke that involve the middle cerebral artery and the non-dominant hemisphere
- Contralateral hemiparesis
- contralateral homonomous heminopia
- apraxia
- sensory neglect
Symptoms caused by a stroke involving the anterior cerebral artery
Contralateral hemiparesis
Speech problems
apathy
confusion
impaired judgment
Urinary incontinence
Symptoms caused by a stroke involving the posterior cerebral artery
Contralateral, homonymous hemianopia
Unilateral cortical blindness
visual agnosia
memory loss
What are the four Gerstmann’s syndrome symptoms?
Posterior Parietal lobe, left hemisphere
- Finger agnosia
- left-right confusion
- agraphia
- dyscalculia.
Area of the brain associated with involuntary, jerky, movements, characteristic of Huntington’s disease.
Basal ganglia and Globus pallidus
What Neurodegenerative disorders is chronic glutamate toxicity linked too?
Seizures, stroke-related brain damage, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Which part of the brain did Kluver and Bucky PC lesion and the rhesus monkeys? We now call it Kluver-Bucy syndrome. And what are behavioral characteristics of Kluver-Bucy syndrome?
Amygdala, hippocampus and temporal lobes.
Behaviors are:
-visual agnosia
-reduced fear
-increased docility
-dietary changes
-abnormal sexual behavior
“Rhesus Monkeys are very interesting dare-devils.”
What is the purpose circuit and what parts of the brain does it include?
It’s believed to control memory and emotions and is composed of the:
cingulate cortex
entorhinal cortex
parahippocampal gyrus
hippocampus
hypothalamus
thalamus.
Schachter-Singer Theory of Emotion
AKA “Two-factors theory of emotions”, emotions are the consequence of (1) physiological arousal plus the (2) cognitive interpretation of that arousal.”
What stage of sleep do dreams occur and describe the qualities of the drink experience.
Dreams occurred during REM and non-REM sleep, but they occur more often during REM sleep. Dreams that occurred during REM sleep are longer, more bizarre and emotional, and are more likely to be recalled.
What are the symptoms of a simple and complex seizure? And what are their similarities and differences?
Similarities- Both Simple and complex seizures are a type of partial seizure, and involves only one side of the brain and body.
Differences- Simple seizures do not cause a loss of consciousness while complex seizures do.
What is a myoclonic seizure and what are the symptoms?
Is a type of epilepsy that are minor and brief seizures that cause brief, sharp, uncontrollable muscle jerks where you loose no level of consciousness.
What is another word for partial seizures?
Focal seizures.
What is the difference between myoclonic seizures and simple focal seizures?
Myoclonic seizures occur in the brain stem so can effect random areas of the body where as simple focal seizures only affect one side of the body.
Damage to the arcuate fasciculus can cause what?
Conduction aphasia, which is characterized by fluent spontaneous speech, normal comprehension, and impaired repetition.
In regards to sensation and perception, what is the opponent process theory?
Proposes that there are three types of bipolar receptor cells in the visual system – red/green, yellow/blue, and white/black. It explains why staring at a red image for a long time and then looking at a white image that the after image shows up as green.
What are the three primary drugs used to slow the cognitive decline caused by Alzheimer’s disease by increasing cholinergic activity?
Galantamine
Rivastigmine
Donepizil
What is the dichotic listening task used for?
It’s used to obtain information about used to obtain information on selective auditory attention and hemisphere specialization.
What are the two hormones implicated in diabetes insipidus, what are their functions and which glands produce and secretes them?
ADH and insulin.
ADH is secreted from the pituitary and regulates water balance in the body.
Insulin comes from pancreas and regulates glucose levels in the body.
What is ideomotor apraxia and what part of the brain is affected?
Having difficulty turning an idea into an action (such as waving goodbye, brushing your hair, or other familiar actions) and is affected in the left parietal lobe.
Weber’s Law
In order to notice a difference in the quality of a stimulus, the second stimulus must be at least a percentage greater or less than the first object. (JND- “Just noticeable difference)
Yerkes -Dodson Law
An optical level of arousal produces an optimal level of performance. Too little arousal produces little performance and too much arousal produces little performance.
Fechner’s Law
The greater is stimulus is the more you need of it in order to detect a change.
Stevens Power Law
Magnitude detection- Measuring actual stimulus against perceived detection of stimulus.
Example, how hot does it feel outside versus how hot it actually is. Or how deep does the lake look when I’m on top of it in a boat versus how deep it actually is.
Humans tend to:
Underestimate area, depth, and bright perception.
They tend to be accurate with length.
And they tend to overestimate sensations of electric shock or color saturation.
The apparent magnitude scale is a measurement system to account for the differences in perceived and actual measurements.
Chronically elevated levels of which hormone is a attributed to a loss of neurons in the hippocampus and is a factor in memory impairment.
Cortisol.
In what part of the brain was electrical stimulation in cats and other animal species was found to produce different types of aggressive behavior.
Hypothalamus
Asomatognosia
Caused by damage to certain areas of the right parietal lobe.
Characterized by a lack of recognition or awareness of parts of one’s own body.
Often involves the left hemiplegic arm.
Anosognosia
Lack of awareness or denial of one’s illness.
Akinesia
Difficulty/impossibility of performing voluntary movements.
Anomia
AKA “anomic aphasia.” Is a language disorder that makes it difficult for people to name objects when speaking or writing.
His often caused by brain damage from strokes, tumors, or trauma and can also be linked to neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer’s or frontotemporal dementia.
What do both generalized onset motor seizures (a.k.a. tonic-clinic seizures) and generalized onset non-motor seizures (a.k.a. absent seizures) both include?
Loss of consciousness
What medication is used for the treatment of alcohol that causes nausea, vomiting, dizziness, confusion, and other unpleasant symptoms when taking in conjunction with alcohol?
Disulfiram (Antabuse)
What is Naltrexone used for?
To reduce cravings by blocking opioid receptors. Can be used with both alcohol and drugs.
What is a diffusion sensor imaging (DTI) used for?
A special application of MRI that is used to detect abnormalities in the brain’s white matter. It does this by identifying the rate and direction of the movement of water molecules along the axons.
What is the difference between an ischemic stroke and a hemorrhagic stroke?
Ischemic strokes happen when there’s blockage in the cerebral artery
Hemorrhagic strokes are due to ruptures in the cerebral artery.
Difference between 1st gen. and 2nd gen. and antipsychotics.
First-generation antipsychotics are dopamine receptor antagonists (DRA) and are known as typical antipsychotics.
Second-generation antipsychotics are serotonin-dopamine antagonists and are also known as atypical antipsychotics.
List monocular and binocular cues
Monocular include:
-relative size of objects
-overlap of objects (interposition)
-linear perspective
-texture
-gradient
-motion of objects (motion parallax)
Binocular include:
-retinal disparity
-convergence
Part of the brain most commonly implicated with contralateral neglect
Parietal lobe.
Most common symptoms in temporal lobe seizures
- Most common type of focal onset seizure.
- Aura.
- Taste or odor.
- Rising sensation and stomach.
- Sudden intense fear or other emotion. 6. Sense of déjà vu or jamais vu.
- Autonomic symptoms, such as lip, smacking, chewing, or swallowing, fidgeting, picking.
- Sweating dilated pupils, tachycardia.
- Trouble speaking accompanied by impaired comprehension.
Common characteristic of frontal lobe seizures
- Second most common type of focal onset seizure.
- They often occurred during sleep and last for less than 30 seconds.
- Kicking rocking bicycling, peddling and other repetitive movements.
- Abnormal posturing, example, fencing posture
- Explosive screams laughter. Trouble speaking with intact, comprehension
- autonomic symptoms.
Common characteristic of frontal lobe seizures
- Second most common type of focal onset seizure.
- They often occurred during sleep and last for less than 30 seconds.
- Kicking rocking bicycling, peddling and other repetitive movements.
- Abnormal posturing, example, fencing posture
- Explosive screams laughter. Trouble speaking with intact, comprehension
- autonomic symptoms.
Pharmacological treatment of MDD with atypical features.
MAOI’s are more effective than TCA‘s, but not much more effective than SSRI’s. Studies have mixed results and demonstrate similar effectiveness between MAOI’s and SSRI’s.
The Kim studies found that the measures on the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IU) correlated with high volumes on what part of the brain and what is the function of this brain structure?
The striatum. The stratum is sensitive to how predictable reward outcomes are during learning tasks. It encodes how predictable a reward is, which is more complex form of reward processing.
Characteristic withdrawal symptoms for the following for drug classes:
LSD-none
amphetamines-depressive symptoms,
Opioids-flu like symptoms
barbiturates & alcohol-hallucinations/seizures/lethal
