CLPS 1700 - Chapter 15

Question 1

What are the three types of cognitive disorders discussed here?

Answer 1

Dementia, amnestic disorder, and delirium

Question 2

What is delirium?

Answer 2

Impaired cognition and a marked change in awareness

Question 3

What is amnestic disorder?

Answer 3

Impaired cognition confined to memory

Question 4

What is dementia?

Answer 4

Impaired memory and at least one other impaired cognitive function, such as perception, attention, or language use

Question 5

Cognitive disorders are almost exclusively due to what kind of factors?

Answer 5

Neurological factors

Question 6

Cognitive disorders generally affect what demographic?

Answer 6

Older adults

Question 7

What is one of the trickier parts of diagnosing cognitive disorders?

Answer 7

Separating the symptoms from the normal consequences of aging

Question 8

What is crystallized intelligence?

Answer 8

Relies on using knowledge to reasons: “crystallized” from previous experience

Question 9

What is fluid intelligence?

Answer 9

Relies on the ability to create new strategies to solve new problems, without relying solely on info previously learned; relies on executive function

Question 10

What type of intelligence is the one that usually declines with age?

Answer 10

Fluid intelligence, at around age 55

Question 11

What are implicit memories?

Answer 11

Unconscious store info that guides a person to behave certain ways: prominent in classical and operant conditioning, habits, etc.

Question 12

Which type of memories is the one that usually declines with age?

Answer 12

Explicit memories, at around age 65

Question 13

What are explicit memories?

Answer 13

Voluntarily brought to mind, like remembering things: recall and recognition

Question 14

What do elderly people have more trouble with, recall or recognition?

Answer 14

Recall

Question 15

What is the ability to sustain or divide attention sequentially along multiple tasks?

Answer 15

Multitasking: declines with age

Question 16

What demographic has better sustained attention and faster processing speed?

Answer 16

Younger people

Question 17

Why do older people have trouble using working memory?

Answer 17

Relies on frontal lobe: doesn’t work as effectively in old age

Question 18

What is working memory?

Answer 18

Memory that requires keeping info activated while operating on it in a specific way, like counting backwards by 3s from 100

Question 19

What age demographic is more likely to suffer from depression or anxiety disorders?

Answer 19

Younger adults, rather than older

Question 20

How does depression affect cognition in old age?

Answer 20

Directly (memory problems) and indirectly (agitation and anxiety affect attention, concentration, etc)

Question 21

Aphasia

Answer 21

Problem in using language

Question 22

Broca’s aphasia

Answer 22

Problems producing speech: often occurs after damage to the left frontal lobe: halting speech, very telegraphic, poor grammar

Question 23

Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 23

Problems with language comprehension/production: often occurs after damage to part of the rear portions of the left temporal lobe: incorrect nonsense words

Question 24

How do clinicians distinguish between schizophrenia and Wernicke’s aphasia?

Answer 24

Schizophrenic individuals are better at understanding speech and naming objects

Question 25

Agnosia

Answer 25

Difficulty understanding perception, while sensory abilities/knowledge is intact

Question 26

Appercetive agnosia

Answer 26

Person cannot organize visual input into objects and spatial relations: can't copy drawings, can't tell if two shapes are the same: can occur after CO poisoning

Question 27

Associative agnosia

Answer 27

Can visually organize shapes, but can't associate the shape with its meaning and can't understand what's being seen: can tell if objects are the same, but not what it is that they're seeing

Question 28

Apraxia

Answer 28

Problems in organizing/carrying out voluntary movements, even though muscles are not impaired

Question 29

What are the two main symptoms of delirium?

Answer 29

Disturbance in consciousness, changes in cognitive functioning, especially attention

Question 30

What gender is more likely to be delirious in old age?

Answer 30

Males

Question 31

What type of delirium arises after withdrawal from alcohol dependence?

Answer 31

Delirium tremens

Question 32

What is amnestic disorder?

Answer 32

Impaired memory, while other mental processes remain intact

Question 33

What does it mean to confabulate?

Answer 33

To create stories in order to fill in memory gaps

Question 34

Who is the best source of information about an amnestic patient's symptoms?

Answer 34

Family members or friends, because due to confabulation, you may not be able to trust the patient's own account of memories

Question 35

What is the cause of Korsakoff's disorder?

Answer 35

Memory problems due to severe thiamine deficiency, potentially caused by alcohol overuse, which reduces thiamine absorption

Question 36

What are the two main types of causes of amnestic disorder?

Answer 36

Substance abuse and medical conditions

Question 37

Are there treatments to cure amnestic disorder? How does one treat amnestic disorder?

Answer 37

No cures: most treatments focus on rehabilitation, such as teaching mnemonics or providing memory aids

Question 38

What is errorless learning technique?

Answer 38

Techniques by which patients are explicitly guided in learning a new skill rather than being allowed to figure it out through trial and error, because patients are more likely to remember their own actions than the corrections of errors they make

Question 39

What is dementia?

Answer 39

Deficits in learning new info or recalling info, PLUS at least one other cognitive impairment such as aphasia/apraxia/agnosia/executive function problems (planning, initiating, organizing, abstracting, sequencing)

Question 40

What is the most common cause of dementia?

Answer 40

Alzheimer's disease

Question 41

What is the difference in onset speed between delirium and dementia?

Answer 41

Delirium has a more rapid onset, while dementia is gradul

Question 42

What is the difference in symptom status between delirium and dementia?

Answer 42

Delirium's symptoms often gradually improve, whereas dementia's symptoms rarely improve

Question 43

What are the there most common types of dementia?

Answer 43

Alzheimer's type, vascular, and due to other general medical conditions

Question 44

What is the cause of nearly 75% of dementia cases?

Answer 44

Alzheimer's disease

Question 45

What are the two brain abnormalities associated with Alzheimer's disease?

Answer 45

Neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques

Question 46

What are neurofibrillary tangles?

Answer 46

When the tau proteins, supposed to be stabilizing the structure of the microtubules in the axon of the neuron, become twisted and faile to help distribute the nutrients along the axon

Question 47

What are amyloid plaques?

Answer 47

Fragments of proteins that accumulate on the outer surfaces of neurons, especially in the hippocampus

Question 48

What is vascular dementia?

Answer 48

Caused by reduced or blocked blood supply to the brain, which arises from plaque buildup or blood clots

Question 49

What are six other medically-caused types of dementia?

Answer 49

Parkinson's, Lewy bodies, HIV, Huntington's, head trauma, substance abuse

Question 50

Parkinson's disease

Answer 50

Slow, progressive loss of motor function: trembling hands, shuffling walk, muscular rigidity

Question 51

What are Lewy bodies?

Answer 51

Consist of a type of protein that can build up inside neurons that produce dopamine and acetylcholine and cause the neurons to die: most involved in memory and motor control

Question 52

Huntington's disease

Answer 52

Progressive disease that kills neurons and affects cognition/emotion/motor functions: fatal