Neuro - The Lesioned Brain

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group studies

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performance of different participants combined to give a group average

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single case studies

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data from different participants not combined

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transcranial magnetic stimulation

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non-invasive stimulation of the brain caused by rapidly changing electrical current in a coil held over the scalp

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split-brain

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fibres of the corpus callosum are severed

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brain damaged can be acquired

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neurosurgery, strokes or cerebro vascular accident, traumatic head injury, tumours, viral infections such as herpes, HIV and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)

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brain damage due to neurodegenerative disorders

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alzheimer type involves atrophy in a number of regions of the brain, with memory loss (amnesia) typically earliest noted symptom

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brain damage due to neurodegenerative disorders

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huntington's disease, pick's disease, multi-infarct dementia caused by many small strokes so hard to distinguish from Alzheimer type

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single disassociation

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person impaired on a particular task (A) but relatively spared on another task (B)

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task-resource artefact

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if two tasks share the same neural/cognitive resource, but one task uses it more, then damage to this resource will affect one task more than the other

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task-demand artefact

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one task is performed worse than another because the task is performed suboptimally, but not because some aspect of the task is compromised

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double disassociation

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two single dissociations that have a complementary profile of abilities, If one can demonstrate that a lesion in brain structure A impairs function X but not Y, and further demonstrate that a lesion to brain structure B impairs function Y but spares function X, one can make more specific inferences about brain function and function localization.

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dysgraphia

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difficulties in spelling and writing

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syndrome

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a cluster of different symptoms that are believed to be related in some meaningful way

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transparency assumption

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lesions affect one or more components within the pre-existing cognitive system but do not result in a completely new cognitive system being created

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ways of grouping patients for a lesion-deficit analysis

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looking at behavioural syndrome, or at behavioural symptoms then lesion location, or lesion location then behavioural symptom(s)

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oedema

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a swelling of the brain following injury

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diaschisis

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discrete brain lesion, can disrupt the functioning of distant brain regions tat are structurally intact

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dual-task interference

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if there is a lowering in performance associated with doing two things at once then it suggests that the two tasks share cognitive processes

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TMS for determining effects of organic lesions

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can determine timing, lesion has specific location, legion can move, can study functional connectivity

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TMS works by stimulating a region of cortex with a current carrying coil

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temporarily interferes with ongoing cognitive activity in that region, so provides information about the necessity of that region for performing the task. This is termed a virtual lesion