Week 2 - Neuropsychology Flashcards
What is the process of utilising accidental injuries/insults for neuropsychological research?
Experimental or accidental injury/insult
Testing
Theory
Application/further evidence
Revision
Repeat
What are the two pathological signs of alzheimers?
Amyloid (A-Beta) Plaques
Tau (neurofibrillary) tangles
What causes early onset Alzheimer’s?
Largely genetic causes
Genes associated with increased plaque deposits
What causes late onset alzheimers?
Cause likely to be varied and multifactorial, but currently unclear
What is the amyloid hypothesis?
AD is caused by a build up of amyloid deposits
If we can stop the brain from producing as many plaques, we can stop people developing AD or at least reduce/slow symptoms
How much drug research has been dedicated to amyloid plaque reduction?
70-80%
What are the criticisms of the amyloid hypothesis?
Some people with high plaque loads don’t get AD, and some people with AD don’t have high plaque loads
Preclinical testing (eg animal and cell studies) create high amyloid deposits, then presume that is a good model of AD
Cause vs consequence - does cough mixture cure a cold? amyloid plaques could just be part of a protective response the brain is having
Amyloid can increase…
Tau tangles
What are the arguments for the amyloid hypothesis?
Identification of gene variants that have been demonstrated to cause amyloid build-up in all the early onset AD cases
While some healthy people have plaques, they could be in the prodromal stages of AD
Amyloid can increase tau tangles
Some drugs have been shown to not do what we thought it did… so not actually impacting on amyloid plaques
Interventions have been given too late - people already have the disease after years of being in pre-clinical/prodromal phase
What factors may cause us to keep researching a questionable theory, especially when no other theory is available?
Social and financial factors
Lack of research into new theories
What is a closed head injury?
Non-penetrative blow to the head. Common causes include MVA, assaults, falls and sports. Can also be percussive (eg blast injuries)
What are the two stages that occur when somebody gets brain damage in TBI?
Primary injury
Secondary injury
What is a primary injury?
Damage occurring at the time of impact - bleeding, diffuse axonal injury, coup/contrecoup damage
What is a secondary injury?
Secondary effects the physiological processes initiated by the primary injury - oedema, intracranial pressure, necrotic and apoptotic cell death etc
What are the three key indicators that are used to determine how severe a TBI is?
Length of Loss of consciousness (LOC
Depth of coma, measured by the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)
Length of post traumatic amnesia (PTA)
