Biopsychology and Neuropsychology - IBP Year 1 - Workgroup notes

Workgroup 1

- Neuropsychologists do tests to determine someone’s neurological functioning and can also treat patients.

- Neuropsychological assessment (NPA) consists of cognitive and emotional functioning, behaviour and personality.

- NPA’s do not only consist of tests but a lot more information is integrated, such as the patient’s medical file, interviews with the people around that person, amnesis and heteroamnesis and observations.

- An amnesis is an interview with the client to determine their former and current functioning and complaints. Heteroamnesis is done with a person close to the client. It consists of asking for the reason for attending, specific cognitive complaints, mood problems, problems/change in behaviour and personality, the impact on daily living, the education or profession of the client, the living situation and family and the medical history and medication.

- Important aspects of observations are the general impression, contact making, language understanding and expression, cognitive functioning, emotions, behaviour, vision, hearing and motor function, pain and fatigue and cooperation and work attitude.

- During this workgroup, we briefly observed a case according to these important guidelines. It involved two videos of the same man suffering from dementia, three years apart from each other.

- Neuropsychological tests test functioning on different levels and draw conclusions about the score compared to the norm. An important thing to remember is that test scores don’t tell anything about a person: We should include our observations as well.

- Recovery after brain damage: From 6-12 months until about two years most spontaneous recoveries occur. After this period, spontaneous recovery is not expected anymore.

- Treatment of patients is multidisciplinary; involving people from multiple different professions. 

- The neuropsychologist is involved in different sort of treatment and psycho-education: patient and family are included, cognitive training is given, alternative methods for daily-life functioning are taught, therapy for psychosocial problems is given and adaptation to the environment is guided. Attention to all the people that are affected and not solely the patient is important. Advice for daily problems is given. Neuropsychologists also give advice and try to apply structure to the patient’s life.

- We watched an experiment considering attention, memory, planning, et cetera of a man who lost a part of his frontal lobe due to an accident and also had a damaged occipital lobe because of this.

Workgroup 2

- Experimental neuropsychology focuses on the neural basis of behaviour.

- Process of research:

            --> Theoretical background

            --> Knowledge gap

            --> Focused research to address open questions

- The publication biasis the huge pressure on scientists to publish research to for example maintain their job. This can lead scientists to commit scientific fraud. 

- Replication studies are done to account for potential defaults in previous studies.

- We discussed the scientific poster assignment during this workgroup.

Workgroup 3

- During this workgroup, we analysed and discussed tests of neurological disorders performed on children.

Workgroup 4

- During this workgroup, we discussed the questions from the document on Blackboard. The correct answers are:

1. From left to right; diencephalon, thalamus and hypothalamus, mesencephalon, rhombencephalon, metencephalon, pons and cerebellum, myelencephalon, medulla.

2a. Gyrus = ridge on the cerebral cortex surrounded by one or more sulci.

Sulcus = groove on the surface of the brain, dividing gyrusses.

Fissure = groove that divides the brain into lobes. 

2b. Increased surface area.

2c. Gray matter is densely packed with cell bodies and dendrites. White matter contains many axons.

2.d-g. Drawing

2h. A loss of control of movement on the right side of the body.

2i. Cortical blindness.

2j. A patient with homonymous hemianopia suffers from a loss of a part of the visual field; the patient is aware of this. A patient with unilateral neglect does perceive this part of the visual field, but fails to process it and is not aware of this.

3a. Dorsal

3b. Anterior

3c. Superior

3d. Contralateral

3e. Medulla, pons and metecephalon.

3f. Vital functions such as breathing.

3g. Balance, coordination, timing and attention shifting between different tasks.

3h. The caudate nucleus, putamen and the globus pallidus.

4a. Drawing

4b. CT: structure, EEG: activity, fMRI: activity, MRI: structure and PET: activity.

4c. BOLD stands for Blood Oxygen Level Dependent: fMRI detects the amount of haemoglobin that contains oxygen; the amount of oxygenated blood.

5a. It cushions the brain, supports its weight, is a reservoir for hormones and it gets rid off waste products from the brain.

5b. The fluid will accumulate in the ventricles, increasing pressures on the brain. This can result in a water brain.

5c. Neurons in the brain degenerate. To fill up the space, the ventricles enlarge.

6a. 2-B, 3-D, 4-A, 5-G, 6-C, 7-F

6b. Drawing

6c. SSRI’s inhibit the reuptake of neurotransmitters. MAOI’s block the breakdown of serotonin and norepinephrine. TCA’s block reabsorption of serotonin and norepinephrine.

6d. They inhibit the transporters for dopamine, thus decreasing reuptake and prolonging dopamine’s effects.

7a. It leads to a reduction of fear response and aggression, the impaired ability to interpret the emotional aspect of facial expression.

7b. Olfactory bulb, hypothalamus, hippocampus and cingulate gyrus and the amygdala.

7c. Anterograde amnesia is more severe than retrograde amnesia, STM is better than the LTM, episodic memory is worse than semantic memory, explicit memory is worse than implicit memory.

8a. Procedural memory, implicit memory, gradual learning and learning of habits.

8b. Arm jerks, facial twitches and tremors that gradually spread across the body.

8c. Rigidity, muscle tremors, slow movements and difficulty initiating physical activity. 

8d. By damage to the substantia nigra, a loss of dopamine-releasing axons to the striatum occurs. The striatum then decreases its inhibition of the globus pallidus, which therefore increases its inhibitory input to the thalamus; resulthing in less vigorous voluntary movements.

8e. The dopamine does not pass the blood-brain barrier.