Psychology Flashcards
What is lateralisation of function of the cerebral hemispheres?
- Left hemisphere specialisation for language
- Right hemisphere specialisation for visuospatial function
What are examples of cognition?
- Memory
- Information processing
- Language
- Planning
- Problem solving
- Attention
What are the three basic units of the CNS according to Luria’s brain-behaviour theory?
- regulation of arousal and muscle tone (brainstem)
- reception, integration and analysis of sensory information (posterior cortical regions)
- planning, executing, verifying behaviour (frontal and prefrontal areas)
What is Luria’s principles of pluripotentiality?
- each area of brain operates in conjunction with other areas
- no area is singly responsible for voluntary human behaviour
- each area may play a specific role in many behaviours
What neural systems are involved in emotion?
Limbic system incl.
- amygdala
- orbitofrontal cortex
- hippocampus
What is the James Lange Theory of emotion?
experience emotion in response to physiological changes
What is Cannon Bard Theory of emotion?
can experience emotion without expressing it physically
What are some functions of the frontal lobe?
- motor control
- language
- higher level cognition
- executive functioning
What are the functional subdivisions of the pre-frontal cortex?
- dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex
- orbitofrontal pre-frontal cortex
- medial pre-frontal cortex
What are the executive functions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex?
- working memory
- planning and organising
- insight
- moral judgement
What is the major blood supply to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex?
MCA
What are consequences of dysfunction of medial prefrontal cortex?
- akinetic mutism at most extreme
- apathy
- lack of initiative
- indifference
What is the blood supply to the medial prefrontal cortex?
ACA
What are consequences of a lesion in the orbitofrontal PFC?
- disinhibition
- impulsivity
What is the blood supply to the orbitofrontal PFC?
ACA and MCA
Which lobe is the last area of the brain to develop?
frontal lobe
Lesions in what other areas besides pre-frontal cortex divisions can cause executive dysfunction?
-thalamus
-cerebellum
any area that connects to PFC
What are positive symptoms of executive dysfunction?
- distractable
- socially disinhibited
- impulsive
What are negative symptoms of executive dysfunction?
- apathy
- lack of initiative
Neuropsychological tests tend to be more sensitive to which lesions in the PFC?
dorsolateral PFC
What are some neuropsychological tests that can be conducted in assessing executive dysfunction?
- Tower of London
- Stroop test (compatibility of word to meaning)
- Rey complex figure test
What are common causes of acute onset of aphasia?
- stroke
- penetrating head injury
- surgical resection
What are common causes of insidious onset of aphasias?
- dementia
- neoplasm
What are common causes of episodic aphasias?
- focal seizures
- migraine
What are characteristics of non-fluent aphasias?
- anterior lesion
- loss of grammatical structure
- intact selection of content
- Broca’s aphasia
What are characteristics of fluent aphasias?
- posterior lesion
- impaired selection of content
- intact grammatical structure
- ‘wordy nonsense’
- Wernicke’s aphasia
Where is Broca’s area?
frontal lobe territory
Where is Wernicke’s area?
More temporoparietal
What are characteristics of Wernicke’s aphasia?
- fluent language output
- impaired comprehension
- no motor weakness
What are characteristics of Broca’s aphasia?
- non-fluent
- effortful language output
- preserved comprehension
- right face and arm weakness
What is a conduction aphasia?
- fluent aphasia
- more meaningful than Wernicke’s type
- poor repetition of words
- damage to arcuate fasciculus tract
What is a transcortical motor aphasia?
- non-fluent aphasia
- muteness occurs at extreme
- repetition is preserved
- damage to MPFC
What are mechanisms of recovery from aphasias?
- contralateral transfer
- ipsilateral reorganisation
What are 2 categories of cognitive interventions?
- environmental modifications
- compensatory strategies
What is immediate memory/short-term memory?
involves working memory
“erasable whiteboard”
What is long-term memory?
storing information for later retrieval
What are the 2 main divisions of memory?
Declarative and nondeclarative
What are examples of declarative memory?
- episode memory (events)
- semantic memory (facts)
What are examples of non-declarative memory?
Skills and habits
Priming/conditioning
What is procedural memory?
- long term, implicit
- skill acquisition
- tends to be maintained in memory deficits
What is episodic memory?
- autobiographical (events in a personal context)
- association between a person event and a specific temporal, spatial and emotional context
What is semantic memory?
- general facts
- shared knowledge
- not contextual
What brain structure is associated with declarative memory?
hippocampus in temporal lobe involved in consolidation
Where is lateralisation of verbal memory?
Left hippocampus
Where is lateralisation of non-verbal memory?
Right hippocampus
What is the neuropathology of temporal lobe epilepsy?
- hippocampal sclerosis
- clinically presents with declarative memory disturbances
What is the most common cause of dementia?
Alzheimer’s disease
What is mild cognitive impairment?
transitional phase between normal ageing and dementia
What early memory complaints typically occur in mild cognitive impairment?
- episodic memory
- name-face association
- object-place association
What are biomarkers of frailty?
- associated with low-grade chronic activation of immune system
- cytokines increase with age and predict functional decline
- levels of cytokines are 2-4 fold higher in frailty
- high levels of CRP
- high levels of IL-6 associated with mortality and decreased muscle mass and strength
- high levels of TNF alpha
What are Fried’s Criteria for frailty?
> 3 criteria
- unintentional weight loss
- weakness (decreased grip strength)
- exhaustion
- slow walking speed
- low physical activity
What are geriatric syndromes?
5 I’s
- incontinence
- immobility
- impaired balance
- impaired cognition
- iatrogenic illness
