PSY1003 W4 Neurocognitive disorders Flashcards
what are neurocogntivie disorders?
insult to neural sites gives rise to symptoms (disease, trauma, degeneration)
Psychological disorders
experiences/environment/genes can give rise to problematic thoughts and behaviours.
Common causes of NCDs
dementias, stroke, traumatic brain injury.
Key features of NCDs
primary clinical deficits is in cognitive function. Acquired rather than developmental: decline from a previous level of function.
Started to see NCDs as a spectrum to allow the introduction of mild NCDs.
Why is the introduction of mild NCDs important?
patients with mild NCD expeiernce a very real problem and deserve support, they used to have to try again in a few years “not sick enough”
Why would we benefit of an early diganosis for NCDs?
Mild NCDs often progress to major NCDs. Diagnosis allows for early intervention & monitoring of symptom. Neuropathology underlying NCDs often emerges well before symptoms.
Limitations: early diagnosis are not easy, early interventions are limited in terms of long-term efficacy.
Why mild NCDs rise in both young and old?
increases in acquired NCDs following injuries, more brain trauma (medical advance, military tactics, repeated minor brain injuries (sports)
Common NCDs impairments and their neural bases
1- Cognitive impairments.
2- Learning and memory deficits.
3-Attention and arousal deficits.
4- Deficits in Executive functions
5-Language deficits
1- Cognitive impairments
diagnosis typically made on earliest visible behvaioural signs. represent cognitve decline, traceable neural basis. Vital role in assessing these abilities.
2-Learning and Memory deficits: Amnesia:
inability to learn new information, failure to recall past events, failure to recall recent events.
2- Learning and Memory deficits: anterograde amnesia
Specific traumatic head injury often result in anterograde amnesia: memory loss for acquired information after onset of amnesia, gradual onset in dementia, damage to hippocampus (temporal lobe).
3-Attention adn arousal deficits
earliest indication of onset of degenerative NCDs, lack of attention or increased distractibility, diffuse neural basis (frontal and parietal regions implicated but netxworks extend to subcortical structures)
4- Defects in Executive functions
May include: Working memory, Problem solving, Goal directed behavior, Attentional control, Inhibitory control, Planning and monitor complex behavior, Change in routine.
Often expressed in NCDs as poor judgement, inappropriate behavior, or erratic mood swings
5- Language deficits
Aphasia: broca, werniches, conduction
Aphasia
Difficulty producing +/or comprehending speech: Very common feature of NCDs, Several flavors
Broca’s aphasia
Difficulty initiating speech or producing complex words. comprehension often maintained. difficulties with word ordering, seleciton, inflection, poor word retrieval, articulation.
Wernicke’s aphasia
Production of incoherent jumbled speech. Poor word retrieval, structually intact speech rate, reading and writtign impairements. Speech rate and fluency maintained.
Conduction aphasia
Difficulty repeating speech.
Visuo-perceptual functioning
Inability to process sensory information due to neural insult. = Patients may be unable to recognise objects or people, Independent of memory loss.
Visuo-perceptual functining: agnosia
comes in many forms = Faces (prosopagnosia), Music (amusia), Movement (Very rare, but hugely debilitating) (akinetopsia)
Visuo-perceptual functining: prosopagnosia
face blindness, face processing problem (high incidence rate in right hemisphere stroke), pure prosopagnosia is rare, loss of familiarity of known faces (struggle to identify friends/family), unable to judge expressions, typically show an understanding of the components of the face.
Visuo-perceptual functioning Akinetopsia
Loss of fluid motion perception (vision becomes stroboscopic. Acuity for static objects preserved = Recognition is normal. Analogous to watching a poorly loaded video or gif.
Some extreme cases: motion perception is eliminated completely, and visual perception becomes a series of static images.
Motor deficts: Apraxia
The loss of ability to execute learned movements.
May be able to perform a behavior as part of a routine, but unable to on command.
Typically cause by lesion or degeneration of posterior parietal lobe
Limbi apraxia
ability to perform gestures, interact objects. Apraxia of speech (= deficit in planning and sequencing the required movements to produce sounds in speech. Distinct from aphasia (but often comorbid).)
DSM-5 causes of NCDs
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Vascular NCDs
- NCD due to Parkinson’s disease
- NCD due to traumatic brain injury
- NCD due to HIV infection
- NCD due to prion disease
- NCD due to Huntington’s disease
- Frontotemporal NCD
Difficulties diagnosing NCDs
Symptoms/ deficits resemble other disorders, with early stages of cognitive decline, partially alleviated by brain imaging in but not fully.
Closed head trauma may produce memory deficits that resemble, single factors may cause broad symptoms.
Age is a risk factor.
Major NCDs
Reflect substantial cognitive impairment. Correspond to disorders previously categorized as dementias.
Mild NCDs
Reflect more moderate impairments.
NCDs a spectrum
Cog deficits may be similar.
Mild: manageable but may require more time or cognitive resources/strategies.
Major: will typically require assistance with such tasks.
Specific NCDs can present as mild or major.
Deficits in major NCDs
Language may become vague and empty, may present with apraxia and agnosia, EF functions are common, poor judgment and insight.