Summary
Neurodegenerative & Developmental Disorders Complete Summary - 3.6 Neuropsychology
- Course
- Institution
Summary of all content of 2024 Neuropsychology exam for week 3 Grade received: 8.8!
[Show more]
Seller
Follow
lindej03
Content preview
3.5 NeuropsychologyWeek 3
Neurodegenerative &
Neurodevelopmental
Disorders
,Kolb & Wishaw (2015) → Chapter 24:
Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
● Pattern of physical malformation and intellectual impairment observed in children born of
alcoholic mothers
● Umbrella term → fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)
● Symptoms
○ Irregular facial features → smooth philtrum, thin upper lip, short palpebral
fissures
○ Brain irregularities → small brains with abnormal gyri, abnormal clusters of cells,
misaligned cortex
○ Small stature, tendency to be thin
○ Behavioral symptoms → learning disabilities, lowered intelligence scores,
hyperactivity, social problems
● Pronounced FASD is found in approx 6% of alcoholic mothers
○ Incidence varies depending on geographic regions
○ Appears in about 1 in 100-700 newborns in the US
○ Especially high prevalence in child care settings and in prison populations
● The diagnosis is not all-or-none → abnormalities can range from hardly noticeable
physical & psychological effects to full blown
○ Severity is related to when how much and how frequently alcohol was consumed
during the pregnancy and individual factors
○ Worst if drinking occurs in first 3 months (often women do not know they are
pregnant) and if caused by binge drinking, poor maternal nutrition, use of other
drugs
● When is alcohol too much → many factors involved
○ Best not to drink at all to be safe → can lead to decreased intelligence scores,
also for males because it could produce epigenetic changes in sperm
○ In FASD babies mothers alcohol problems often predate pregnancy and there is
little access to prenatal care
● Mechanisms of alcohol
, ○ Effects on cell division & maturation and epigenetic effects
○ Possibly linked to potassium channel Kir2.1 that allows potassium to move freely
across cell membrane and thus is important to normal resting potential of cells
■ Support for this in mice studies, alcohol has an inhibitory effect on Kir2.1
channels
Kolb & Wishaw (2015) → Chapter 26: Neurological
Disorders
Multiple sclerosis
● Disorder of myelinated motor fibers → loss of myelin largely in motor but also in
sensory tracts
○ Loss is not uniform, lost in patches, causes small hard scars (sclerotic plaques)
in which the myelin sheath and sometimes the axons are destroyed
● Produces strange symptoms that usually appear in adulthood
○ Loss of sensation of face, limbs, body
○ Blurring of vision
○ Loss of sensation or control in one or more limbs
○ Often early symptoms go into remission and may not appear again for years but
in some cases disease progresses rapidly in just a few years
● Cause remains unknown
○ Possibly bacterial infection, virus, environmental factors, immune response of
CNS
○ Often multiple cases in a family (genetic predisposition)
● Prevalence
○ Most prevalent in northern Europe, then less so in north America and rare in
Japan and more southerly or tropical areas
○ 50 per 100 000 when prevalent makes it one of the most common structural
nervous system diseases (only Parkinson’s is as common)
○ Female to male ratio = 3:2, often progresses more rapidly in females
● The geographical prevalence issue has raised the question of being related to vitamin D
deficiency
○ Vitamin D is obtained from sunlight and oily fish → reduced sources in northern
latitudes
○ Vitamin D may be important to myelin development in childhood and its
maintenance in adulthood
○ But vitamin D plays many roles in the nervous system so it remains uncertain
● Drug treatment → alemtuzumab (lemtrada) destroys a class of immune cells that attack
healthy body treatment
○ Shows promise for MS treatment
○ Advances in brain computer interface technology are also promising for aiding
mobility
, Kolb & Wishaw (2015) → Chapter 27: Psychiatric
and Related Disorders
Motor disorders
● General
○ Clinical symptoms marked by abnormalities in movement and posture referable
to dysfunctions of basal ganglia
○ Most obvious symptom is motor affliction but cognitive changes can also be
made especially with progression of the disorder (schizophrenia like)
○ Two groups of motor symptoms
■ Loss of movement → hypokinetic-rigid syndrome (eg Parkinson’s)
■ Increased motor activity → hyperkinetic-dystonic syndrome (eg
Tourette’s)
● Hyperkinetic disorders
○ Huntington’s disease
■ Intellectual deterioration and personality changes and abnormal
movements (choreas)
■ First symptoms usually appear around 30-50 but can come earlier
■ First behavioral symptoms and within a year
involuntary movements occur
● Begins with fidgeting and become incessant,
irregular and patternless
■ Behavioral symptoms → impairment of recent
memory, defective ability to manipulate acquired
knowledge, slowed information processing
■ Emotional changes → anxiety, depression, mania,
schizophrenia like psychosis
● Suicide is common in younger onset patients →
disease progresses faster
■ After disease onset patients live for 12 years on
average
■ Rare disease → 1.6 per million die per year
■ Often affects white Europeans
■ Transmitted genetically → autosomal dominant allele
with complete penetrance (half of the offspring will
develop the disease)
● The location of the gene is now known and in
utero there is the ability to determine if a family
member will develop Huntington’s
■ Autopsy results → cortical shrinkage and thinning,
gross atrophy of the basal ganglia and neuronal loss
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller lindej03. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $9.81. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
75759 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now