W9 Flashcards
What is Dementia?
Dementia is a neurological disorder characterized by progressive cell death, resulting in progressive and irreversible loss of function. Memory loss and effects on language functioning are hallmarks of dementia.
How is dementia categorized?
Dementia is categorized by impairments in memory and social behavior, aphasia (language impairments), apraxia (motor memory impairment), agnosia (sensory memory impairments), abstract thinking, and executive function impairments. It is diagnosed when these impairments are not explainable by other disorders.
What is Degenerative dementia?
Degenerative dementia refers to forms of dementia presumed to have a genetic cause, resulting in progressive cortical and subcortical degeneration. Alzheimer’s disease is a common example of degenerative dementia.
What is Nondegenerative dementia?
Nondegenerative dementia refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders with diverse origins, not primarily caused by genetic factors. Parkinson’s disease is an example of nondegenerative dementia.
What are the anatomical correlates of Alzheimer’s disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is associated with cortical degeneration, particularly in regions such as the entorhinal cortex, limbic cortex, inferior temporal cortex, and posterior parietal cortex. The primary sensory and motor areas are typically spared in Alzheimer’s disease.
What are the 2 main categories of long term memory?
Implicit / Non-declarative Memory: Unconscious memory involving skills or conditioned responses.
Explicit / Declarative Memory: Conscious memory involving recall of facts, events, and experiences.
What is procedural memory?
Procedural memory involves remembering how to perform certain actions or skills, such as riding a bike or playing the piano. It is assessed through tasks like the serial reaction time task.
What is Priming?
Priming is the phenomenon where prior exposure to a stimulus influences the processing of a related stimulus. It leads to a repetition suppression effect in the brain.
What makes explicit and implicit memory different?
Explicit memory is processed in a top-down manner and involves active recall, while implicit memory is processed in a bottom-up manner and involves passive recall.
Who was HM?
HM was a patient who underwent medial temporal lobe resection to treat epilepsy, resulting in severe anterograde amnesia but intact implicit memory.
Prime structures (neural circuits) for explicit memory?
Prime structures for explicit memory include the medial temporal region (hippocampus, amygdala), frontal cortex, and reciprocal connections between frontal and temporal brain regions.
Who was patient J. K.?
Patient J. K. had impaired implicit memory with intact explicit memory due to damage to the basal ganglia caused by Parkinson’s disease.
Prime structures (neural circuits) for implicit memory?
Prime structures for implicit memory include the basal ganglia, ventral thalamus, substantia nigra, and premotor cortex.
What can declarative (explicit) memory be split into?
Declarative memory can be split into episodic memory (recollection of specific events) and semantic memory (knowledge about the world).
What is semantic memory?
Semantic memory is a person’s knowledge about the world, including facts, recognising faces, concepts, and general knowledge that is not tied to specific events or experiences.
