Terms Flashcards
acute confusional state
common, usually reversible disorder of attention
amnesia
impaired recent memory, with deficient new learning
aphasia
acquired disorder of language
apraxia
impairment of learned movement
agnosia
impaired recognition in visual, auditory, or tactile modality
visuospatial impairment
difficulty interpreting spatial relationships
hemineglect
failure to attend to one side of body or extrapersonal space (usually left)
Personality change
departure from normal character or comportment that often implies frontal lobe lesion
Dementia
multiple coexisting neurobehavioral deficits (e.g. amnesia, aphasia, personality change)
speech
mechanical act of uttering words using neuromuscular apparatus responsible for phonation and articulation; necessary but not sufficient for language
dysarthria
disorder of speech due to motor system impairment (difficulty articulating)
dysphonia
disorder of voice related to laryngeal disease
cerebral dominance
refers to the fact that language is lateralized/represented in left hemisphere in most people (left hemisphere has been called “dominant”)
- each hemisphere dominant for different functions
alexia
impaired reading
agraphia
impaired writing
Broca’s aphasia
nonfluent speech, good comprehension, poor repetition, poor naming
Wernicke’s aphasia
- damage to Wernicke’s area in left hemisphere
- Fluent speech, but poor comprehension, repetition, naming
Conduction aphasia
Fluent speech/good comprehension, but loss of repetition and naming
Global aphasia
disabling disruption of all aspects of language (spontaneous speech, repetition, comprehension, naming)
most common cause of specific destructive lesion
stroke
when does most functional improvement in language/other cognitive skills occur
first year
Aphasia examination
assess spontaneous speech, comprehension, repetition, naming (also writing/reading for literate individuals)
Mental Status Exam
complete history/neuro exam; as about delusions, hallucinations, cognitive deficits
Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE)
30 point measures assessing mental status briefly; not equivalent to complete mental status exam
- good for following pts with known diagnosis but not for diagnosis
