Neuropsychology_Laura_vacchi_-_notes_from_presentation

Vascular pathologies

Can be either ischemic or haemorrhagic

Ischemic pathologies

Issues related to reduced blood flow to the brain, including strokes, thrombosis, and transient ischemic attacks

Haemorrhagic pathologies

Bleeding in the brain, such as hematomas and subarachnoid haemorrhage

Degenerative pathologies

Disorders characterized by the progressive degeneration of brain cells, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, which affect the nervous system overtime

Language and learning disorders

Includes primary language disorders, verbal dyspraxia, and learning disabilities related to neurological issues

Autism spectrum disorders and complex disabilities

Includes autism, psychomotor delay, and other intellectual and neuropsychological disorders

Epilepsy

Covers various types of epilepsy, from partial to generalized seizures, including drug-resistant forms, and genetic epilepsy

Neoplastic pathologies

Tumors affecting the central nervous system, including neurofibromatosis and paraneoplastic syndromes

Immune-mediated diseases and multiple sclerosis

Includes diseases like neuromyelitis optica, and autoimmune encephalitis

Traumatic pathologies and intracranial hypertension

Injuries to the brain and conditions leading to increased pressure inside the skull

Neurological disorders

Motor development disorders, neuromuscular diseases, movement disorders, metabolic diseases, genetic syndromes and infectious pathologies

Motor development disorders

Conditions like cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophies

Neuromuscular diseases

Diseases affecting muscle function like SMA

Movement Disorders

Includes dystonias and tremors, such as in Tourette Syndrome

Metabolic diseases

Conditions like mitochondrial and lysosomal diseases, affecting metabolic processes

Genetic syndromes

Includes genetic disorders that cause developmental delays or intellectual disabilities

Infectious pathologies

Diseases like meningitis and encephalitis caused by infections affecting the brain

Gray matter

Makes up 40% of the brain and is responsible for processing information

White matter

Makes up 60% of the brain and is responsible for connecting different regions of grey matter facilitating communication within the brain and the body

Afferent neurons

Carry sensory information from the body towards the brain

Efferent neurons

Carry motor output from the motor cortex of the brain to the muscles

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)

It is a clear, colourless fluid that surrounds the CNS (central nervous system), including the brain and spinal cord; it transports nutrients and chemicals to nerve cells, it helps clear waste products secreted by the nerve cells and it acts as a cushion to protect the brain and spinal cord from physical impacts

Anatomo-clinical correlation

Refers to the relationship between cognitive functions and specific areas of the brain

Diastasis effects

Refers to the loss of function not just in the primary damaged area but also in other connected regions, leading to dysfunction far from the initial lesion site

Brain plasticity

The brain can adapt to regain function after damage through neural reorganization

Cognitive neuroscience techniques

Methods used to study the neural bases of mental processes while the brain is working; the main methods are neurophysiological methods, neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation

Neurophysiological methods

Electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography

Neuroimaging

Magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography

Non-invasive brain stimulation

Transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial electrical stimulation

Temporal resolution

Refers to how accurately the method can measure changes over time

Spatial resolution

Refers to how precisely the method can identify brain regions or specific neurons

Goals of assessment

Identify cognitive impairment, predict recovery or progression and educate and plan interventions

Treatment

Based on neuroplasticity and restorative or compensatory cognitive rehabilitation

Sensation

Occurs when sensory receptors detect sensory stimuli; involves transduction

Transduction

Process of converting stimuli into neural signals (action potentials) sent to the CNS

Perception

Organization, interpretation, and conscious experience of sensory information; transforms raw sensations into meaningful representations

Ventral pathway

What pathway; processes object identity (color, shape); vision for perception; lesions such as visual agnosia and prosopagnosia

Dorsal pathway

Where pathway; processes spatial location and action; vision for action; lesions such as optic ataxia and simultagnosia

Visual cortices

V1, V2, V3, V4, V5

Primary visual cortex

V1

Associative visual cortices

V2-V5

V1

Initial processing center in the brain for visual information

V4

Responsible for colour discrimination; damage leads to achromatopsia

V5

Processes motion and spatial perception; damage leads to akinetopsia

Achromatopsia

Loss of color vision; can be cerebral or peripheral

Cerebral Achromatopsia

Acquired colour blindness due to bilateral damage to V4; perceptual deficits; ability to discriminate based on luminosity is maintained but color perception is lost

Peripheral achromatopsia

Congenital condition caused by cone photoreceptor dystrophy; marked reduction in visual acuity, extreme light sensitivity, absence of color vision; night vision not impaired

Akinetopsia

Acquired motion blindness resulting from a bilateral lesion in V5; patient perceive movement as a series of static images or frames

Visual agnosia

Impairment in recognizing objects; it can be apperceptive or associative; other types are place and color

Apperceptive agnosia

Perceptual level; early visual processing affected; elementary sensory functions (color, size) are preserved, but there is an inability to integrate sensory data into a coherent, structured visual perception; cannot copy images or describe the details of a stimulus, inability to distinguish objects from background or other objects, inability to copy by drawing; can draw objects from memory

Associative agnosia

Semantic levle; semantic processing affected; perception of objects is intact but there is a disconnection between perceptual analysis and semantic memory; cannot recognize, name or remember objects; can describe the objects verbally or categorize them when prompted, can copy by drawing; memory for object features may remain but use or name is inaccessible

Topographic agnosia

Place agnosia; inability to recognize familiar places while retaining ability to recall them through verbal descriptions (no memory deficit)

Colour agnosia

Difficulty naming colours or associating objects with their typical colours

Optic ataxia

Lack of coordination between visual input and hand movements

Prosopagnosia

Inability to recognise faces; can be developmental/congenital or acquired

Developmental prosopagnosia

Lifelong inability to develop face recognition, genetic factors are implicated

Acquired prosopagnosia

Impairment in recognizing faces; can be apperceptive or associative

Apperceptive acquired prosopagnosia

Impaired perception of faces; inability to recognize familiar and unfamiliar faces, difficulty in recognizing facial emotion; possibility of facial recognition based on non-face clues

Associative acquired prosopagnosia

Perception intact but inability to link faces to identity or semantic information; difficulty in identifying person or provide any information about them

Simultagnosia

Inability to perceive more than a single stimulus at a time

Capgras delusion

Belief that familiar people are impostors, due to emotional recognition disconnection and not due to perceptual deficits; common in schizophrenia/neurological patients, after brain injury or neurogenerative diseases