L8: Memory Disorders

Question 1

Neurocognitive disorders have many causes (e.g. Alzheimer’s, TBI). What is the prevalence?

Answer 1

• older people
• less educated
• blacks & hispanics are more affected

Question 2

How to determine the major and mild categories of Neurocognitive disorders?

Answer 2

• evidence of significant/modest cognitive decline from a previous level of performance in one or more cognitive domains
• concern of the individual, a knowledgeable informant, or the clinician that there has been a significant/modest decline in cognitive function

AND

• impairment in cognitive performance as documented by neuropsych testing
• cognitive deficits intereferes with/does not interfere with independence of everyday activities

Question 3

Neuropsychological Assessment does 2 things

Answer 3

1) test some aspect of behavior (attn, language, memory, etc)
2) infer something about brain function (location, type, and/or degree of impairment

Question 4

Are neuropsych assessments used to determine if there is an impairment?

Answer 4

No; they are used to determine the nature & degree of impairments, rather than if there is an impairment

Question 5

Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure

Answer 5

evaluate spatial abilities & non-verbal memory

1. copy image
2. draw it again immediately to test immediate recall
3. draw it again 20 min later to test delayed recall w/o warning

The ROCF copy is sensitive to neurological dysfunction, especially the right parietal region.
The ROCF Recalls are sensitive to neurological dysfunction in the medial temporal lobes.

Question 6

Incidences and prevalences of traumatic brain injury

Answer 6

about 1.5 mill ppl sustain TBI's each year in U.S.
major risk factors:
-males (MVA, sports --> TBI)
-ages 0-4; 15-19; >75
-military 
-contact sports

Question 7

California Verbal Learning test (CVLT)

Answer 7

distinguish btw learning/attn problem & memory problem; evaluate auditory / verbal learning and memory

CVLT–II involves the oral presentation of a 16-word list (List A) over five immediate-recall trials. An interference list (List B) is then presented for one immediate-recall trial, followed by short- and long-delay free- and cued-recall and recognition testing of List A. During the long-delay interval (approximately 20 min), nonverbal testing is administered to the subjects.
Performance can be improved greatly by the use of a strategy (semantic clustering items into categories such as vegetables, etc.)

Recognition memory is more often spared in dementias than recall memory. (perform better on RECOGNITION than RECALL)

Question 8

N-back (2 back was demonstrated in class)

Answer 8

-evaluate working memory/short-term memory

In the N-back task patients are presented with a stream of stimuli, and the task is to decide for each stimulus whether it matches the one presented N items before.
There are both auditory and visual administrations of the N-back

Prefrontal lobe dysfunction is associated with poor performance on the N-back tasks

Question 9

Digit Span Forward

Answer 9

Pt is read numbers (e.g., 8-3-2-4-7-1-5) at rate of 1/second
Ask pt to recall numbers in forward and backward direction

Digit span forward is generally considered a measure of short term memory