Traumatic Brain Injury III Flashcards
Attention
form the foundation for which all other cognitive skills are based (cognition is built in attention)
- is the allocation of processing resources
- difficulties may be more pronounced in less structured environments
5 Types of attention:
- Focused
- Sustained
- Selective
- Alternation
- Divided
Focused/Sustained Attention
The state of focusing on one stimulus to the exclusion of all other competing stimuli
ex: “I try to watch TV but I just drift off.”
Selective Attention
The ability to focus on the important/relevant stimuli in the presence of distracting stimuli
ex.:“I can’t cook while there is noisy construction work happening next door; I get too distracted.”
Alternating Attention
An individual is asked to focus on any two tasks that require thought and are completed at the same time
ex.:“I can’t listen to a lecture and take notes at the same time.”
Divided Attention
An individual is asked to complete two tasks at once but one of the tasks requires little to no thought
ex.:“I can’t brush my daughter’s hair while talking on the telephone; can’t do two things at once anymore.”
Frontal Lobes are responsible for higher-order functions:
executive functions
emotional-behavioral-social control regulation
motor functioning
the appropriate use of language, social pragmatics, and the subtleties of communication (innuendoes, humor)
Frontal Lobe Damage (disorders)
Motor impairment
halting/disorganized speech
personality changes
aphasia
apraxia
difficulty with emotional/behavioral control
Patients may exhibit passivity, apathy, or lack of internal drive/motivation
Executive Functions
The executive functions relate to one’s ability to use cognitive skills efficiently in a complex environment
EFs help us regulate our abilities so we can achieve goals
EFs are often performed without thinking and may be age-related in terms of development
EFs are an umbrella term that encompass many different skills
- “self” related functions
- morals
- the ability to attend and focus
Some Executive Function
- Planning and Organizing
- Flexible Thinking
- Monitoring Performance
- Multi-tasking
- Problem Solving
- Self-Awareness
- Learning Rules
- Social Behavior
- Making Decisions
- Motivation
- Initiating/Inhibiting Behavior
- Goal Setting
- Generalization
- Controlling Emotions
- Insight
Perseverate (perseveration)
repeating a thought, behavior, action or words
Commonalities: Executive Function
Patients may begin a task prior to thinking through all of the steps
Repetition of a thought, behavior, action, or verbal utterance that continues even though it is no longer appropriate
Patients tend to think about features in lieu of groups or categories
Inability to focus on more than one thing at a time
Patients are easily distracted
Psychosocial Responses: Premorbid
morbid= is the cause; ex. car accident premorbid= how the pt. was before the TBI/damage
Inhibition (the filter to adjust words and actions)
Emotional Stability
Psychosocial Responses: Post-Injury
Post-injury= what the pt. is like after the damage
Cog-corn deficits
Dis-inhibition
Emotional Instability
Orientation
- Person
- Place
- Time
- Purpose
A&O x4 (is this circle) (sometimes it is person place month and year and no purpose)
Types of Memory
Procedural (Implicit) Declarative (explicit) Episodic Recall Prospective Sort term Long term
Procedural (implicit)
its the ability to perform skills in the absence of conscious awareness; do it without thinking about it
recognition of patterns
ex. riding a bicycle; remembering the procedure (steps)
Declarative (explicit)
its factual memory; all about the facts
ex. ability to do math; do well on a test
includes episodic and semantic
Long Term Memory
recall of previously known information (remote memory); recolling ino that has been stored
Short Term Memory
immediate recall of new visual or verbal info
use info chunking
-7 items + or - 2
Episodic
recall of temporally dated events; tied to an event in time
- episodes in time
- may forget bits and pieces of the event
Prospective
ability to recall info needed in the future
ex.: remembering to do something late like go to a Dr. appt.
Recent Memory
delayed recall of new info over past 30 mins.
Problem Solving involves
have to use attention skills and executive functions to do problem solving
- Identifying problems
- Generating solutions
- Organization
- Sequencing
- Implementing solutions (set them up for success)
- Managing time
- Self-monitoring
- Safety
