Neuro Block 4

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prosody

prosody

involved with right hemisphere; rhythm, timing, emphasis, volume, tonal (pitch) variations of verbal speech; conveys emotion and grammatical emphasis

Wada test

identify the hemisphere that is dominant for language by injecting a short-acting barbiturate into one internal carotid artery, which anesthetizes the entire hemisphere on the side of the injection; for the language-dominant hemisphere, there is a loss of language functions

corpus callosotomy

corpus callosum severed to help reduce epileptic seizures in small number of patients

aphasias

disorders that involve the inability to comprehend and/or produce language, while still being able to hear/see language and produce words; cause problems with speaking, understanding, reading, and/or writing; do NOT affect intelligence, only linguistic communication; most common cause is stroke, but also caused by head injury, brain tumor or other neurological causes; result from damage to parts of the brain that are involved in essential language functions

Broca's aphasia

occurs when the left inferior frontal cortex is impaired; patients are able to understand language, but have difficulty producing language; may be related an impairment of motor planning for speech; motor/non-fluent/expressive; disruption of language production (finding/expressing the right words) and organization (grammar, syntax); patients are acutely aware of their problem

Wernicke's aphasia

occurs when posterior part of left superior temporal gyrus is impaired; patients can speak, but their speech is typically incomprehensible, and they cannot understand speech; typically also have trouble reading and writing; sensory/fluent/receptive; language produced sounds normal but much of it makes no sense; many patients seem to be completely unaware of their problem

arcuate fasciculus

connects Wernicke's area and Broca's area

Broca's area

area of left frontal lobe that stores the motor programs to talk

Wernicke's area

area of rear left temporal lobe that contains sound images of words

learning

change in behavior as a result of experience or practice or study; can be acquisition of information, behavior pattern or ability

memory

ability to recall or recognize based on previous experiences

memory trace

mental representation of previous experience

declarative (explicit) memory

things you know that you can tell others (episodic, semantic)

procedural (implicit) memory

things you know that you can show by doing (skill learning, priming, conditioning)

classical (Pavlovian) conditioning

learning procedure whereby a neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response because of its repeated pairing with some event

operant conditioning

learning procedure whereby specific consequences are associated with a voluntary behavior; rewards increase a behavior and punishment decreases a behavior

immediate memory

ability to hold ongoing experiences in mind for fractions of a second

working (short-term) memory

hold information in mind for seconds to minutes to achieve a goal, requires attention

long-term memory

retaining information for days, weeks, life

amnesia

deficit in memory (partial or total), often due to brain damage or disease

anterograde amnesia

deficit in learning new information; not short term memory loss but rather inability to consolidate short term into long term memory

retrograde amnesia

deficit in recalling previous information

skill learning

learning to perform a challenging task through repetition; impaired with damage to the basal ganglia

episodic memory

personal or autobiographical memory; impaired with damage to the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex

JK

case study in which dysfunction of basal ganglia lead to disruptions in implicit memory, like motor tasks; perfectly intact declarative/explicit memory

KC

case study in which damaged frontal lobes lead to episodic amnesia; perfectly intact procedural, short-term, and semantic memories

HM

case study in which bilateral medial temporal lobe surgical resection (including hippocampus) lead to anterograde amnesia for declarative memory

CW

case study in which damage to frontal lobes and hippocampus lead to anterograde and retrograde amnesia and a very short memory span; intact procedural memory and strong emotional memory of wife

hippocampus

part of limbic system important for spatial memory and memory consolidation with its connections to surrounding areas; bigger in London cab drivers

hippocampal place cells

neurons that increase firing rates when mouse walks/runs through specific point in previously learned maze; each new circumstance leads to new neural representation of space

neuroplasticity

nervous system's ability to adapt to changes in environment or to compensate for an injury/disorder through neurophysical and/or neurochemical changes

Hebbian plasticity

neurons that fire together wire together

long-term potentiation

following a strong burst of electrical stimulation applied to the presynaptic neuron, amplitudes of the EPSPs in the postsynaptic neuron are increased

aging

progressive physiological changes in an organism that lead to a decline of biological functions and of the organism's ability to adapt to metabolic stress; takes place in a cell, an organ, or the total organism with the passage of time

microglia

during aging, these cells have chronic inflammatory signaling, decreased phagocytic activity, and are poised to enter and remain in a state of activation

neurons

during aging, these cells have decreased neuroprotective signaling, increased susceptibility to damage, and induce glial cell activation and BBB permeability

astrocytes

during aging, these cells have increased inflammatory signaling, decreased processing of extracellular ions, more susceptible to ROS, BBB breakdown

oligodendrocytes

during aging, these cells have broken and incomplete myelin sheaths, inefficient cellular migration, and slower remyelination rate

cognitive domains

memory, executive functioning, attention, visual-spatial perception, language

mild cognitive impairment

one or more cognitive domains affected, 10-20% progresses to dementia

dementia

acquired and persistent syndrome of intellectual impairment characterized by cognitive deficits and impairment in social and occupational functioning

neurodegeneration

progressive loss of structure and function or death of neurons

inclusions

aggregations of misfolded proteins that mess up normal functions of the brain

Alzheimer's disease

most common neurodegenerative disease; accumulation of Abeta, Tau; neurotoxicity of plaques and tangles causes cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain to stop producing ACh and/or die; 95% of cases are sporadic rather than familial

Tau

protein that is overly post-translationally modified (phosphorylated) and mislocalizes, misfolds, aggregates, and spreads in Alzheimer's disease

emotion

composite of feeling, behavior, and physiology that allow animals to react adaptively to internal and external stimuli; can be innate or learned; temporally and contextually dependent

feeling

subjective mental state (cognitive process)

valence

how positive or negative the emotion is

arousal

level of excitement

Papez circuit

polygraph test

measures respiration, skin conductance (sweating), heart rate assuming that people who are lying will have an emotional response because they fear detection or feel guilty; only 65% accurate

sham rage

incredible rage easily provoked when the cerebral cortex is removed; spontaneous with no specific target

Duchenne smile

true emotional smile which cannot be faked or voluntarily produced

pyramidal smile

fake smile, only zygomatic muscles used

maclean circuit

amygdala

found in the anterior, medial temporal lobe adjacent to hippocampus; responsible for relating sensory stimuli with emotional experience; connectivity with prefrontal cortex required for higher order processing of emotion and ultimately behavior associative learning

Urbach-Wiethe disease

rare autosomal recessive disorder predisposing to increased collagen deposition in the skin and soft tissues

SM

unable to feel fear as a result of damage from urbach-wiethe disease; has startle response and aggression not dependent on the amygdala; no concept of personal space; cannot recognize fear in facial expressions

emotional learning

construction of implicit memories linking a situation or event to an emotional body state

low road

unconscious responses to threat; stimulus reaches thalamus and is directly relayed to amygdala

high road

more detailed and conscious processing of threat; stimulus reaches the thalamus and goes via the sensory cortex and hippocampus to the amygdala

prefrontal cortex

regulates behavior/response (i.e. emotional controlling, show toughness); modulates limbic reactivity; involved in selecting behaviors appropriate to the context

psychiatric disorder

syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbances in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in mental functioning; classified by the DSM or ICD

cognitive appraisal

recognize and remember real threat

physiological arousal

enhance alertness, awareness; prepares body for action so you can mobilize a quick response

anxiety disorders

inappropriate or generalized, excessive, irrational anxiety that interferes with daily functioning; continues to occur after the stimulus/stressor is gone; symptoms persist for >6 months and include irrational and excessive fear or worry, panic, feelings of dread, trouble concentrating, irritability, feeling restless, tense, jumpy, pounding heart, sweating, etc

phobias

persistent, irrational fears of animals, objects, or situations

social anxiety disorder

significant fears of situations where the person may be scrutinized negatively by others, or embarrassed in a public situation

neuropathologist

who does autopsy in medicine

A beta

causes neuronal hypertoxicity in neurons of patients with Alzheimer's disease

generalized anxiety disorder

long-lasting anxiety bouts (weeks or longer) not focused on any one object or situation; excessive worries about real life problems such as school and work performance

panic disorder

ecurrent unexpected panic attacks; can be accompanied by agoraphobia

agoraphobia

fear of public places

panic attack

discrete period of intense fear or discomfort, usually with chest pain, choking, sweating, imminent sense of doom and urge to escape, fear of dying

post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

exposure to a traumatic event with serious risk of violence or death to self/others, which is persistently reexperienced (dreams, hallucinations, flashbacks, etc) and can be triggered by stressful events or even benign stimuli

obsessions

recurrent unwanted, distressing thoughts/fears

compulsions

repetitive irresistible behaviors to reduce obsessions or adhere to rigid "rules"; usually reduces anxiety but are not pleasurable

barbiturates

GABA agonists used as treatment for anxiety; large dependence and toxicity issues

benzodiazepines

indirect GABA-A agonists that bind to sites on GABAA receptors that are different from the GABA binding site to increase the ability of GABA to bind to its receptors and its effects once bound; leads to increased Cl- flow into neuron, hyperpolarization, decreased excitability; effects depend on GABA concentrations

affects

feelings or emotions

affective disorders

disorders of mood or emotions

major depressive disorder

most common affective disorder characterized by a profound sense of despair and hopelessness; loss of interest in pleasurable activities or things (anhedonia); self-isolating, loss of social ties, not showing up; disturbed sleep; changes in appetite; sourceless guilt, pessimism, suicidal thoughts; irritability, chronic indecisiveness; episodes typically last 4-12 months (6 months average); high comorbidity with anxiety disorders; genetic predisposition and/or combined with stress (high cortisol levels)

monoamine theory of depression

both 5-HT and NE are used in diffuse modulatory systems which help to regulate overall states such as mood; too little leads to depression and too much leads to mania

reserpine

antihypertensive and antipsychotic drug that depletes 5-HT and NE, produces depression in ~10% "normal" people

Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs)

antidepressant medications that increase the amount of monoamine neurotransmitter in synapses

Tricyclics (TCAs)

a group of antidepressant drugs that block the uptake of neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine and dopamine, from the synapse

bipolar disorder

characterized by shifts in affect between severe depression and mania, with cycles that last for days-months.; no sex differences, onset is usually earlier in life than unipolar depression

mania

periods of inflated self-esteem or grandiosity, increased energy, decreased need for sleep, unusual talkativeness, flight of ideas or racing thoughts, highly distractible, delusions, excessive risk-taking behavior

lithium

metallic ion used as a mood stabilizer for those with bipolar disorder

schizophrenia

serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally; may result in some combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior

positive symptoms

excess or gained behavior

hallucinations

false perceptions; usually auditory, voices talking

delusions

false beliefs (despite evidence, reality); persecution, control, guilt, grandeur

loose associations

jump between topics that are only minimally related/unrelated

neologisms

made up words

perseveration

persistent repetition of the same word or idea

clang

speech in rhyme

word salad

completely disorganized speech

negative symptoms

deficits or lost behavior

alogia

content/amount of speech is reduced