Chapter 10 - Brain-Based Amnesia and Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's Disease

One of many dementia-type illnesses that are more common in older adults than in younger adults. Memory is the first deficit detected in this disease.

amnesia

Memory deficits acquired through brain damage.

amnesic syndrome

Specific impairment of encoding new into both episodic and semantic memory while most other cognitive functions remain intact.

amyloid plaques

Masses of unnecessary proteins that interfere with normal brain function.

anosognosia

The failure to become aware of a cognitive deficit.

anterograde amnesia

An inability to form new memories following brain damage.

benzodiazapines

Drugs that are used usually to relieve anxiety, insomnia, and muscle tension. They are also strong amnesia-inducing drugs, especially within the episodic memory domain.

Capgras syndrome

A condition caused by·brain damage in which patients believe that other people have been duplicated and that two identical people may exist.

confabulation

When amnesic patients lie about their past. They do not know they are not telling the truth because of deficits in source monitoring.

consolidation

A neurological process whereby memory traces are made permanent in a person's long-term memory.

diencephalon

The part of the brain that includes the thalamus and hypothalamus. It serves as an important relay point in human memory circuits.

electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

An effective treatment for depression that involves delivering a strong electric shock to the head of a patient. It creates periods of retrograde amnesia.

errorless learning

A technique that trains a patient to learn a particular fact or skill while preventing that person from making errors during training.

frontal syndrome

People often show retrograde amnesia and may show anterograde amnesia, although the latter tends to be much less severe than in other patients. They may also show anosognosia and confabulation.

hippocampus

An area of the brain associated with learning and memory. Damage can cause anterograde amnesia.

implicit memory

The preserved ability to perform tasks that are influenced by a past event without being aware of the event experience.

Korsakoff's disease

A severe form of amnesia brought on by long-term alcoholism. Characterized by anterograde amnesia, retrograde amnesia, anosognosia, and confabulation.

mammilary bodies

A subcortical region of the brain associated with learning. Damage can cause anterograde amnesia.

medial temporal lobes

Area of the temporal lobes assocated with learning and memory. Damage can cause anterograde amnesia.

memory appropriation

A person with amnesia retrieves an event based on someone else's repeated retelling of the event.

memory compensation

Rather than trying to answer a question about the past, a person with amnesia talks about the issues that have arisen from amnesic syndrome.

memory conversations

The discussions we have with others about the past.

memory importation

A person with amnesia describes a memory from before the injury as if it had happened after.

memory rehabilitation

The interventions that clinical neuropsychologists use to promote improved memory performance in memory-impaired individuals.

method of vanishing cues

Technique that uses the spared implicit memory of people with amnesia to help them learn new skills.

neurofibrillary tangles

The twisting of amyloid plaques around neurons, which causes destruction of those neurons

reduplicative paramnesia

A condition caused by brain damage in which patients believe that places or locations have been duplicated and that the two locations exist simultaneously.

repetition priming

The effect of presenting a stimulus on the later processing of that same stimulus. People with amnesia show repetition priming even if they do not consciously recall the target.

retrograde amnesia

An inability to retrieve memories of events prior to brain damage.

Ribot's law

Newer memories will be more affected by retrograde amnesia than older memories.

short-term memory amnesia

Deficits in the capacity of working memory.

source amnesia

Deficits in correctly attributing the source of a memory.

transient global amnesia

A rare form of amnesia in which the amnesic effects are short lived, usually on the order of hours.

word fragment completion

A participant ls given some letters of a word but not all of them and must figure out the word.