Brain (Test 4)

Question 1

What is it called when inferior projections of the cerebellum are pushed out of the foramen magnum?

Answer 1

Chiari malformation

Question 2

What is Chiari Malformation associated with?

Answer 2

Headaches, nausea, muscles weakness, difficulty swallowing, impaired coordination and blockage of the normal flow of spinal fluid (particularly in the central canal of the spinal cord).

Question 3

How is Chiari Malformation treated?

Answer 3

decompressive surgery

Question 4

How is a decompressive surgery performed?

Answer 4

By removing the lamina of the first (to sometimes up the third) vertebrae and part of the occipital bone of the skull to relieve the pressure.

Question 5

What are the two important functional systems of the brain?

Answer 5

Reticular formation and the limbic system

Question 6

What is the loosely organized core of gray matter that projects vertically through the core of the midbrain, pons, medulla, diencephalon, and spinal cord?

Answer 6

The reticular formation

Question 7

What is the motor component of the reticular formation responsible for?

Answer 7

communicating with the spinal cord and REGULATING MUSCLE TONE (especially when the muscles are at rest). Also assists with the autonomic centers in the medulla and pons to help control respiration, blood pressure and heart rate.

Question 8

What is the sensory component of the reticular formation responsible for?

Answer 8

alerting the cerebrum to incoming sensory info via sensory axons that project into the cerebral cortex.

Question 9

What is the sensory component of the reticular formation also known as?

Answer 9

Reticular activating system (RAS)

Question 10

What is responsible for maintaining a state of awareness or consciousness?

Answer 10

the reticular activating system (RAS)

Question 11

How does the RAS keep us in a state of consciousness?

Answer 11

processes visual, auditory, and touch stimuli

Question 12

How does the RAS arouse us from sleep?

Answer 12

Because the RAS receives stimulatory sensory information and sends it to the cerebrum (note that conversely if there is little or no stimuli while in bed with the light out, you sleep because the RAS is not stimulated to act).

Question 13

What causes headaches even though the brain itself is pain-insensitive?

Answer 13

Pressure produced by tumors, hemorrhage, meningitis, or inflamed nerve roots. Typical emotional stress, increased blood pressure, and food allergies, all of which cause blood vessels diameter changes.

Question 14

What is the difference between headaches and migraines?

Answer 14

Migraines are severe recurring headaches that usually affect only one side of the head.

Question 15

Are headaches a brain disorder?

Answer 15

No, but they may accompany other disease or brain disorders.

Question 16

What brain disorder is actually a group of neuromuscular disorders that usually result from damage to an infant’s brain before, during, or immediately after birth.

Answer 16

Cerebral Palsy

Question 17

What are the three forms of cerebral palsy involving impairment of skeletal motor activity to some degree?

Answer 17

athetoid, ataxic, spastic

Question 18

What is athetoid (cerebral palsy) characterized by?

Answer 18

slow, involuntary, writhing hand movements

Question 19

What is ataxic (cerebral palsy) characterized by?

Answer 19

lack of muscular coordination

Question 20

What is spastic (cerebral palsy) characterized by?

Answer 20

increased muscular tone

Question 21

What is Encephalitis?

Answer 21

An acute inflammatory disease of the brain most often due to viral infection.

Question 22

What are the symptoms of Encephalitis?

Answer 22

Drowsiness, fever, headache, neck pain, coma and paralysis. Oh and death can also occur.

Question 23

What “brain disorder” is characterized by recurring attacks of motor, sensory, or psychological malfunction, with or without unconsciousness or convulsive movements? (technically not a scientific disease…)

Answer 23

Epilepsy

Question 24

What is the difference between a grand mal seizure and a petit mal seizure?

Answer 24

Grand mal affect the motor areas of the brain and cause severe spasms and loss of consciousness. petit mal affect sensory areas and do not lead to convulsions or prolonged unconsciousness.

Question 25

What brain disorder is an autosomal dominant hereditary disease that affects the cerebral nuclei?

Answer 25

Huntington Disease?

Question 26

What are the main symptoms of Huntington disease?

Answer 26

rapid, jerky, involuntary moments that usually start unilaterally in the face but over months and years progress to the arms and legs.

Question 27

Which brain disorder is a slow-progressing neurologic condition that affects muscle movement and balance causing patients to exhibit stiff posture, an expressionless face, slow voluntary movements, a resting tremor and a shuffling gait?

Answer 27

Parkinson disease

Question 28

What causes Parkinson disease?

Answer 28

a deficiency of neurotransmitter dopamine which results from a decrease dopamine production by degenerating neurons in the substantia nigra.

Question 29

What is the medical sequence of events that occurs when the cerebrum pushes down through the tentorial notch because of head trauma, intercrainal bleeding, tumors, inflammation, or cerebral edema called?

Answer 29

Rostrocaudal brain deterioration

Question 30

What is one step in the rostrocaudal brain deterioration?

Answer 30

Transtentorial brain herniation

Question 31

What are some treatments for rostrocaudal brain herniation?

Answer 31

high flow oxygen, barbiturate-induced coma, diuretics, decompressive crainectomy.

Question 32

What is another name for a stroke?

Answer 32

Cerebrovascular accident

Question 33

How many stroke victims die within 3 years?

Answer 33

2/3

Question 34

What is a thrombus (hint: stroke)?

Answer 34

a blood clot within the blood vessel (one cause of cerebrovascular accident aka stroke).

Question 35

What is hemiplegia (hint: stroke)?

Answer 35

Contralateral paralysis of the body. Often a symptom of strokes.

Question 36

What is a transit ischemic attack (TIA)?

Answer 36

elderly peoples sometimes experience brief episodes of lost sensation or motor ability or “tingling” in the limbs, it’s also known as a “mini stroke.”

Question 37

What causes a TIA or “mini stroke”?

Answer 37

a temporary plug in a blood vessel that dissolves in a matter of minutes.