Neurological Disorders and Cognitive Rehabilitation

A series of practice flashcards covering key concepts related to neurological disorders, cognitive rehabilitation, and memory processing.

What are the two main visual processing pathways in the brain?

The dorsal visual stream (where, processes location and movement) and the ventral visual stream (what, processes color and object recognition).

What is the location and function of the dorsal visual stream?

It runs from the occipital lobe to the parietal lobe and is responsible for processing location, movement, and spatial relations.

What is visual agnosia?

A condition characterized by the inability to recognize objects despite having intact vision.

What is prosopagnosia?

A specific type of visual agnosia where the individual has difficulty recognizing familiar faces.

What defines simultanagnosia?

An impairment that prevents an individual from perceiving the whole picture of a scene while still being able to identify discrete features.

What is hemispatial neglect syndrome?

A condition where a patient fails to report, respond, or orient to stimuli on one side, usually the left, often due to a lesion on the opposite side.

What are upper motor neuron signs?

These include weakness, increased tone, and increased reflexes indicative of lesions in the motor pathways within the brain.

What characterizes lower motor neuron lesions?

They lead to weakness, atrophy, fasciculations, and decreased reflexes indicating damage to the lower motor neurons outside the brain.

What is akinesia?

A symptom characterized by the absence or lack of voluntary movement.

What role does the basal ganglia play in movement control?

The basal ganglia are crucial for the control and regulation of voluntary movements, cognition, and emotional regulation.

What is the difference between apraxia and other movement disorders?

Apraxia is the inability to perform learned movements despite having the desire and physical capability to do so, usually due to brain damage.

Define mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

A condition where individuals have mild cognitive difficulties beyond normal aging while still being able to perform activities of daily living.

What is the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease?

Characterized by the accumulation of amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the brain, leading to neurodegeneration and cognitive decline.

What are common symptoms of frontal lobe dementia?

Changes in personality, executive function deficits, and impaired social conduct.

What defines 'cognitive reserve'?

The brain's resilience to damage, believed to be affected by educational and occupational experiences that enhance cognitive abilities.

How is a stroke defined and what are its primary types?

A stroke is a sudden interruption of blood supply to the brain, classified into ischemic (due to a clot) and hemorrhagic (due to bleeding).

What is the difference between delirium and dementia?

Delirium has a rapid onset and fluctuating course, often reversible; dementia is a gradual decline in cognitive function over time.

What does an anoxic brain injury entail?

An injury caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain, affecting various brain structures and leading to cognitive and motor impairments.

What are three main cognitive functions impacted by aging?

Working memory, short-term memory, and speed of processing all tend to decline with age.

Describe the role of neuroplasticity in recovery from brain injury.

Neuroplasticity involves the brain's ability to reorganize itself and form new neural connections to compensate for injury or disease.

What is anomia?

A language disorder characterized by difficulty in word retrieval, often associated with aphasia.

What characterizes Broca's aphasia?

Nonfluent speech with intact comprehension, effortful and often ungrammatical speech.

What is Wernicke's aphasia?

Fluent but nonsensical speech with impaired comprehension and poor awareness of deficits.

What are the primary brain regions involved in language processing?

Broca's area (left frontal lobe) for speech production and Wernicke's area (left temporal lobe) for language comprehension.

What is the role of executive functioning?

Executive functions control cognitive processes like planning, organization, problem-solving, and multi-tasking.