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37 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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The neurotransmitter that has been most associated with Alzheimer's Disease is
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Acetylcholine and L-glutamate
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The first stage of AIDS-related dementia is characterized by
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mild memory loss. AIDS dementia complex occurs in about 2/3 of all AIDS patients. Usually, one of the first cognitive signs of dementia (both in AIDS and non-AIDS patients) is a loss of concentration and a mild memory loss, especially for recent events.
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Antidepressant drugs exert their effect by
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increasing brain levels of norepinephrine and/or serotonin. Anti-depressants, such as tricyclics and MAO inhibitors, exert their effect by increasing brain levels of norepinephrine and serotonin. The newer generation of anti-depressants (e.g., Prozac) increase brain levels of serotonin only.
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In contrast to the tricyclic antidepressants, the SSRIs
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are less likely to cause anticholinergic effects.
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A man is brought to an emergency room following an automobile accident. He reports no memory of the events directly preceding the accident. This memory dysfunction is called
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Retrograde amnesia is amnesia for event things which occurred before a trauma. Anterograde amnesia means that events after the trauma are forgotten.
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A person sustains severe head trauma that leads to retrograde and anterograde amnesia. Which memories are more likely to return first?
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memories that were stored well before the event. The longer the time period for memories stored prior to the trauma, the less they are disrupted. Consequently, those memories are recovered more quickly than memories surrounding the trauma.
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Aphasia is a(n)
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language disturbance. Aphasia is a language disturbance caused by damage to a language area of the brain. Examples of this are Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia.
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Damage to Broca's area of the left hemisphere produce
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aphasia. Broca's area controls speech. It's in the left hemisphere because that's where language is processed. Aphasia refers to impairment in speech functions; damage to Broca's area produces expressive aphasia, or difficulties speaking.
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After suffering from a stroke, a woman is not able to comprehend language. Although she can speak clearly, her speech does not make any sense. This woman is most likely suffering from
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Wernicke’s aphasia. Wernicke's area, in the temporal lobe of the brain, is involved with language comprehension. Lesions in the temporal lobe may produce Wernicke's aphasia, which is associated with impaired comprehension of language, fluent aphasia (clear speech that makes little or no sense), and dysnomia (inability to name objects).
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The ARAS (Ascending Reticular Activating System) produces its effects on motivation by
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providing diffuse facilitation to the entire cortex. The ascending reticular activating system is involved in behavioral arousal. It screens input to the brain and provides diffuse stimulation to the entire cortex when important information must be processed.
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Which of the following substances or class of substances exhibits cross-tolerance with alcohol?
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Benzodiazepines (e.g., Valium, Xanax) exhibit cross-tolerance with alcohol and most other sedatives. This means that a person who develops tolerance to the effects of alcohol will also be tolerant to benzodiazepines. In general, the physiological effects (e.g., intoxication and withdrawal) of alcohol and benzodiazepines are similar.
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EMG Biofeedback has been shown to be useful for treating
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tension headaches but not migraine headaches. For migraines, thermal biofeedback is considered more effective.
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The circadian rhythm is regulated by the
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hypothalamus. You may have thought the answer was reticular activating system, which is involved in many functions related to sleep. However, the circadian rhythm, or the innate, 24-hour cycle of biological activity (i.e., the biological clock) is managed by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a group of cells found within the hypothalamus. The SCN gets information about day length via a pathway between it and light receptors in the retina. The SCN interprets this information and passes it to the pineal gland, which secretes the hormone melatonin in response (nighttime increases melatonin secretion, while daylight inhibits it). Destruction of the SCN causes circadian rhythms to disappear entirely.
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Both the clinical and adverse effects of antipsychotic medication occur because the medication
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blocks dopamine receptors in the brain. Antipsychotic medication reduces the activity of dopamine by blocking dopamine receptors in the brain. This mechanism is responsible for both the clinical effects of the medication and adverse effects such as tardive dyskinesia and Parkinsonism.
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A 60-year old linguist and musician suffered heart failure resulting in a prolonged period of anoxia. Following this episode, he showed no interest in his work, became rather careless about his personal hygiene, displayed a short attention span, seemed unconcerned about his impaired functioning, and generally appeared rather childish. Which part of his brain was most likely affected?
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The frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex are involved in the focusing of attention and "executive function"; i.e., control and regulation of cognition and planning. Lesions in this brain area have been shown to produce the "frontal lobe personality," which involves apathy, inability to plan and focus attention, and lack of drive. The DSM-IV name for this condition would be "Personality Change Due To a General Medical Condition."
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The initial symptoms of Huntington's disease are most likely to be
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depression, anxiety and/or irritability. In most people, the initial symptoms of Huntington's Disease are affective (and, most often, suggestive of depression). These are followed by motor and cognitive symptoms.
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An MRI of a patient in the early stages of Huntington's disease would indicate
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reduced volume of the basal ganglia. Huntington's disease is due to degeneration in several areas of the brain including the basal ganglia and can often be detected by an MRI or other brain imaging technique even before the person exhibits symptoms.
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Which of the following sends signals to the gonads triggering the release of sex hormones?
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The hypothalamus releases hormones which stimulate the pituitary gland, which in turn, releases hormones which stimulate the testes and ovaries to produce sperm or develop an egg in the male and female respectively.
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The endocrine system is controlled by the
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The hypothalamus has direct control of the endocrine system via neural control of the pituitary gland to which it is connected. In turn, the pituitary gland influences secretions of other endocrine glands.
The thyroid gland is a major, but not a controlling, gland of the endocrine system. |
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Hypothyroidism is most likely to involve
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depression, mental slowing and impaired attention. Because of the similarity in mood and cognitive symptoms, hypothyroidism can be confused with depression.
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Korsakoff's Syndrome is characterized by
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short-term and recent long-term memory deficits but not immediate memory deficits. Korsakoff's syndrome is due to Vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency, usually resulting from chronic alcoholism. It is characterized by deficits in short-term memory - resulting in a significant disturbance in the ability to learn new information (anterograde amnesia), as well as some retrograde amnesia, particularly for recent long-term memories. That is, a person with Korsakoff's may be able to remember events from childhood, but not events from a year ago. Immediate short-term, as well as, implicit memories are generally not affected.
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In most people, damage to the left hemisphere is likely to result in
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– impairment in expressive speech. For most people, the left cerebral hemisphere is primarily responsible for language-related functions (as well as analytic tasks). By contrast, the right hemisphere is primarily responsible for recognition of non-verbal sounds, drawing, and recognition of emotional state. The word "primarily" is key, since the two hemispheres do cooperate for most functions.
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The left frontal cortex is most associated with
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expression of speech. The expressive functions are located in the frontal lobes. The verbal functions are mostly located on the left side of the brain. Putting that together, you get left frontal lobe for expression of speech. Broca's area, which is responsible for expressive language, is located here.
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Long-term potentiation is associated with
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learning and memory. Long term potentiation has been observed in hippocampal neurons and is believed to be responsible for structural changes in synapses that are related to the formation of memories.
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Inability to convert short-term into long-term memory is associated with damage to
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The hippocampus is the brain structure believed to be responsible for transferring information from short-term memory to long-term memory.
The hippocampus plays an important role in memory functions. Damage to this structure impairs the acquisition of new information. |
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Medications used in the treatment of OCD target which of the following systems?
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seratonergic. Although not fully understood yet, OCD is believed to be related to deficiencies within the serotonergic system. One support for this hypothesis is the effectiveness of the SSRIs and tricylics (which target serotonin and other neurotransmitters) on obsessive-compulsive symptoms
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After suffering a lesion in the spinal cord, a person reports weakness in movement in part of the body. Most likely, this is an example of
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Paresis, or partial paralysis, can be caused by damage to the pyramidal motor system, which consists of a pathway of neurons that descend from the brain and through the spinal cord. In quadriplegia (paralysis of all four limbs) and hemiplegia (paralysis of one side of the body), the patient would experience a loss of movement, rather than weakness in movement
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Parkinson's Disease is linked to which of the following brain structures?
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substantia nigra. Parkinson's disease, which is characterized by tremors and other disorders of voluntary movement, is caused by degeneration of substantia nigra neurons. The substantia nigra is a group of neurons that is part of the extrapyramidal motor system.
In other words, basal ganglia neurons are also involved in Parkinson's disease — the disease occurs when they get a lower than normal quantity of dopamine. Thus, if substantia nigra were not a choice, the basal ganglia would be the best answer. |
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An inability to recognize familiar objects by touch is most likely due to damage to the
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parietal lobe. The condition described in this question is called tactile agnosia and is associated with damage to the parietal lobe, which contains the somatosensory cortex.
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__________ and __________ are used to assess regional cerebral blood flow.
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PET; f MRI. Positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging are functional imaging techniques.
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In Postconcussional Disorder a patient would most likely have problems with:
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poor attention and memory. Postconcussional Disorder, (which is included in the Appendix on disorders provided for further study in the DSM-IV-TR), always involves difficulties in attention or memory. It also involves at least three of eight other possible signs, including: irritability and aggression (choice C), fatigue, insomnia, headache, dizziness, anxiety, depression, apathy, and personality change.
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The ability to process music is localized
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in the right hemisphere. Discriminating nonverbal sounds and music ability is mediated mostly in the right hemisphere.
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If a stimulus is presented to the left visual field only of a " split-brain patient," the pt
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will be unable to name the stimulus. The term "split-brain patient" refers to someone whose corpus callosum (the bundle of fibers connecting the brain's right and left hemisphere) has been cut. When a stimulus is projected to the left visual field, visual information about that stimulus is transmitted to the right hemisphere. In a split-brain patient the information will not get transferred to the left hemisphere, where the language centers are located. Thus, the patient will not be able to name the object.
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The body's preparation for "fight or flight" is believed to be controlled by the limbic system as mediated through the
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sympathetic NS only. The reactions are the adaptive responses of the organism to danger. We think of such affects as fright and rage as the typical defensive reactions humans use. In either the fight or flight response, the organism mobilizes its resources through sympathetic autonomic activity, such as dilation of the pupils, increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, increased respiration, and increased muscle tension. You should also know that the parasympathetic nervous system is that part of the autonomic system that is active in the quiescent, resting state.
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If elderly patients are given chlorpromazine for an extended period of time, the most likely side effect would be
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Tardive dyskinesia, or involuntary rhythmic movements, is a side effect of the neuroleptics (antipsychotics). Chlorpromazine (also known as Thorazine) is an example of a neuroleptic drug.
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Trauma to the temporal lobe is associated with
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memory loss. Damage to the temporal often leads to memory deficits.
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Brain lateralization begins to develop:
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during the first yr of life.
Brain lateralization refers to the process in which different functions become specialized in one of the two hemispheres. Evidence suggests that brain lateralization is already present in the first few months of life. |
