CD 422: Exam 3

For students at the University of Alabama's CD 422: Neurological Disorders class

What are some functions of the right hemisphere of the brain?

• Arousal

• Attention

• Orientation

• Visual perception

• Emotional experiences and expressions

• Perception of sequence of events (temporal order)

• Perception of musical harmony

• Certain aspects of communication

What are some causes of RHD?

• CVA

• Tumors

• TBI

• Neurological diseases

What are some characteristics of RHD?

• Insensitivity and preoccupation with self.

• Oblivious to social conventions

• Unaware of or inattentive to physical and mental limits

• Verbose, tangential, and rambling in speech

• Insensitive to meaning of abstract or implied material

• Unable to grasp overall significance or meaning of complex events

Perceptual and Attentional Deficits

Neglect of physical health, facial emotion recognition difficulties, visuoperceptual deficits, and attention deficits

Affective (Emotional) Deficits

Difficulty understanding emotions, stating emotions depicted in story scenes, difficulty in vocal emotional expressions

Communication Deficits

Prosodic deficits, impaired discourse, semantic problems, pragmatic defects

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) / Craniocerebral Trauma

Injury to the brain secondary to physical trauma or external force

How many TBIs occur in the United States each year?

1.6 million

What are some common causes of TBI

• Vehicle accidents

• Pedestrians

• Falls

• Interpersonal violence

• Sport and recreational activities

Penetrating Brain Injuries

Piercing of the skull by an external object (bullets, nails, knives, etc.)

Nonpenetrating Brain Injuries

A TBI in which the skull may be fractured, but the meninges remain intact

What are some of the neurobehavioral effects of a TBI?

• Altered conscious

• Confusion and disorientation

• Amnesia/memory problems

• Dysphagia

• Poor emotional control

• Seizures

What are some of the communicative disorders associated with a TBI?

• Mutism

• Confused language

• Anomia

• Reduced fluency

• Difficulty in suprasegmental aspects of speech

• Problems with reading and writing

• Auditory comprehension problems

What are the cognitive deficits associated with a TBI?

• Memory problems

• Attention

• Reason/abstract thinking

• Problem solving

• Executive functioning