Psy3241 - User contributions [en]

Egas Moniz

LMalonson — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:41:19 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Image:Moniz.jpg|thumb|Antonio Egaz Moniz]]

'''Antonio Egas Moniz''' (1874-1955) was a Portuguese neurologist who refined the lobotomy as a surgical procedure to relieve anxiety, depression and schizophrenia in psychiatric patients. Although there was no empirical evidence supporting his theory, Moniz hypothesized that by severing the connections of the frontal lobe, he could also sever the neural impulses that were responsible for the obsessive, paranoid ideas that characterized his patients’ mental illnesses.

His first lobotomy was performed in 1935 on a woman suffering from severe agitation and paranoia. Though later procedures involved severing the frontal lobe with a wire, in his first attempt, Moniz drilled several holes into the patient’s skull and injected alcohol into the openings. According to his reports, the woman’s condition improved, although he admitted that her emotional affect was compromised as a result of the surgery

Despite the extreme subjectivity in his medical publications and the lack of rational justification regarding the psychosurgery, Moniz’s lobotomy procedure was met with high regard by other neurosurgeons. Many speculate that the desperate need for psychiatric treatment at the time may have contributed to this seemingly unwarranted acceptance of lobotomy into the medical community.

Moniz contributed much to neurology in his time ; besides his infamous lobotomy, he also further developed a technique that allowed doctors to see blood vessels in the brain by injecting radioactive tracers. But because he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1949 (in physiology/medicine) for his psychosurgery, and because of its controversial popularity, this procedure is the contribution that is most attributed to his fame.

Relatives of patients who underwent lobotomies want the nobel prize given to Moniz revoked, despite the fact that he has been dead for over 50 years. These relatives, as well as modern neurologists, contest that the surgical procedure harmed a substantial number of people, was used in inappropriate circumstances (for example, to cure constant headaches, mental retardation, and anxiety), and left the patients severely incapacitated, and emotionally deficient.

Many claim that Moniz’s lobotomy was only a slightly less gruesome version of the procedure developed by U.S. neurosurgeon Walter Freeman, which involved drilling an ice pick above the patient’s eye socket to sever nerve fibers.

The Nobel Foundation claims that Moniz deserved the prize because there were no alternative treatments for psychiatric patients around at the time, and there is no possibility that the award will be revoked.

References:

[http://www.livescience.com/health/ap_050714_lobotomy.html]

Alexander Luria

LMalonson — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:39:34 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Category:Neuropsychological profiles]]

Alexander Romanovich Luria (1902-1977) is a Russian neurologist and psychologist. He has been cited by Solsa and colleagues as the most frequenly cited Russian psychology scholar in the North American continent. Luria proposed the brain as a functional system, in which different areas act together to result in behavior. His work in the neuropsychology field has been extremely influential; one of the more important topics in his work is his stance on localization and the cerebral organization of mental function. Tupper adds, "...Luria's neurolinguistic interests and aphasia classification, his drug and cognitive approaches to rehabilitation of individuals after brain injury, his discussions of breakdowns in regulatory activity associated with frontal lobe damage, and his qualitiative approach to assessment are all major areas of Luria's work" (Tupper 1999).

See also: [[Luria-Nebraska battery]]

Alexander Luria

LMalonson — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:38:22 GMT

LMalonson:

Aleman et al. (2001)

LMalonson — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:41:41 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Category:Synesthesia Symposium]]

Activation of the Striate Cortex in the absence of visual stimulation: an fMRI Study of Synesthesia- Presented by Hayley Devlin and Rachel Kimchi

Shadowed by Lauren Malonson

Overview of Article:

The purpose of this study was to find out if the primary visual cortex is activated without direct external input to the visual system. In other words, the question is, does the primary visual cortex play a functional role in internally generated visual perception? To determine this, an fMRI scan was conducted on a woman with color-word synesthesia (when she heard a word, she involuntarily saw a color) during two verbal tasks and control conditions. In the first task (passive listening), the participant was auditorily presented with 14 words, and in the next (verbal fluency), she was presented with one letter at a time and asked to generate as many words as possible starting with that letter. In the control conditions, tones were presented and the participant pressed a button when the frequency changed. All fMRI results were compared against those of normal participants.

Results showed that V1 was activated in both the passive listening and the verbal fluency tasks in the participant with color-word synesthesia. The normal subjects did not show activation of V1 in any condition. These results are significant for several reasons: first, while previous studies have tested the role of V1 in the presence of visual perception (in the absence of visual stimulation), those studies had mixed results; additionally, the previous studies focused on conscious visual perception, whereas this one focused on involuntarily generated perception; next, these results, as suggested in the study, may have important implications regarding other types of visualization that are uncontrolled by the experiencer (such as hallucinations); and finally, the results provide significant evidence that feedback connections into V1 may “mediate processes such as perceptual organization, attention and awareness,” and that those connections play a major role in “associative and primary visual areas in visual experience” in the absence of direct visual stimulation.

Entorhinal cortex

LMalonson — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:36:08 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Category:Brain areas]]
'''The entorhinal cortex:''' a subregion of the parahippocampal gyrus of the temporal lobe.

The entorhinal cortex (EC) is located in the inferior medial temporal lobe and is adjacent to the hippocampus. Because the hippocampus does not receive neocortical input directly, the function of the EC is to transmit and relay information to and from the hippocampus.

Through the EC, the hippocampus can maintain connections with the temporal, frontal, parietal lobes and their surrounding structures (which include the parahippocampal gyrus, and allocortical tissues, the perirhinal cortex, septal nuclei and amygdale) through the EC.

As an integral part of the hippocampal system, the EC plays a major role in memory and cognitive processing. The EC contains between seven and eight layers: the superficial layers project to the dentate gyrus and hippocampus and receive input mainly from the prefrontal cortex and other cortical areas, such as the perirhinal, and parahippocampal cortices; the deeper layers receive outputs of the hippocampus and reciprocate connections from other cortical areas that project to superficial layers of the EC.

The specific function of the EC in regards to memory is unknown because it is extremely difficult to isolate it from the hippocampus without severely damaging both areas of the brain. It is known, however, that damage to the EC is associated with Alzheimer’s Disease and impaired sense of direction, which is supported by the notion that the EC contains a map of the spatial environment. The EC, as well as the rest of the hippocampal system, is also indicated in memory consolidation and optimization during sleep.

See also: Brodmann area 28, and Brodmann area 34.

References:

[http://brainmind.com/Area28Entorhinal.html]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entorhinal_cortex]

Entorhinal cortex

LMalonson — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:33:47 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Category:Brain areas]]
The entorhinal cortex: a subregion of the parahippocampal gyrus of the temporal lobe.

The entorhinal cortex (EC) is located in the inferior medial temporal lobe and is adjacent to the hippocampus. Because the hippocampus does not receive neocortical input directly, the function of the EC is to transmit and relay information to and from the hippocampus.

Through the EC, the hippocampus can maintain connections with the temporal, frontal, parietal lobes and their surrounding structures (which include the parahippocampal gyrus, and allocortical tissues, the perirhinal cortex, septal nuclei and amygdale) through the EC.

As an integral part of the hippocampal system, the EC plays a major role in memory and cognitive processing. The EC contains between seven and eight layers: the superficial layers project to the dentate gyrus and hippocampus and receive input mainly from the prefrontal cortex and other cortical areas, such as the perirhinal, and parahippocampal cortices; the deeper layers receive outputs of the hippocampus and reciprocate connections from other cortical areas that project to superficial layers of the EC.

The specific function of the EC in regards to memory is unknown because it is extremely difficult to isolate it from the hippocampus without severely damaging both areas of the brain. It is known, however, that damage to the EC is associated with Alzheimer’s Disease and impaired sense of direction, which is supported by the notion that the EC contains a map of the spatial environment. The EC, as well as the rest of the hippocampal system, is also indicated in memory consolidation and optimization during sleep.

See also: Brodmann area 28, and Brodmann area 34.

References:

[http://brainmind.com/Area28Entorhinal.html]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entorhinal_cortex]

Egas Moniz

LMalonson — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:16:05 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Image:Moniz.jpg|thumb|Antonio Egaz Moniz]]

Antonio Egas Moniz (1874-1955) was a Portuguese neurologist who refined the lobotomy as a surgical procedure to relieve anxiety, depression and schizophrenia in psychiatric patients. Although there was no empirical evidence supporting his theory, Moniz hypothesized that by severing the connections of the frontal lobe, he could also sever the neural impulses that were responsible for the obsessive, paranoid ideas that characterized his patients’ mental illnesses.

His first lobotomy was performed in 1935 on a woman suffering from severe agitation and paranoia. Though later procedures involved severing the frontal lobe with a wire, in his first attempt, Moniz drilled several holes into the patient’s skull and injected alcohol into the openings. According to his reports, the woman’s condition improved, although he admitted that her emotional affect was compromised as a result of the surgery

Despite the extreme subjectivity in his medical publications and the lack of rational justification regarding the psychosurgery, Moniz’s lobotomy procedure was met with high regard by other neurosurgeons. Many speculate that the desperate need for psychiatric treatment at the time may have contributed to this seemingly unwarranted acceptance of lobotomy into the medical community.

Moniz contributed much to neurology in his time ; besides his infamous lobotomy, he also further developed a technique that allowed doctors to see blood vessels in the brain by injecting radioactive tracers. But because he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1949 (in physiology/medicine) for his psychosurgery, and because of its controversial popularity, this procedure is the contribution that is most attributed to his fame.

Relatives of patients who underwent lobotomies want the nobel prize given to Moniz revoked, despite the fact that he has been dead for over 50 years. These relatives, as well as modern neurologists, contest that the surgical procedure harmed a substantial number of people, was used in inappropriate circumstances (for example, to cure constant headaches, mental retardation, and anxiety), and left the patients severely incapacitated, and emotionally deficient.

Many claim that Moniz’s lobotomy was only a slightly less gruesome version of the procedure developed by U.S. neurosurgeon Walter Freeman, which involved drilling an ice pick above the patient’s eye socket to sever nerve fibers.

The Nobel Foundation claims that Moniz deserved the prize because there were no alternative treatments for psychiatric patients around at the time, and there is no possibility that the award will be revoked.

References:

[http://www.livescience.com/health/ap_050714_lobotomy.html]

Egas Moniz

LMalonson — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:12:16 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Image:http://editthis.info/images/psy3241/c/c2/Moniz.jpg]]

Antonio Egas Moniz (1874-1955) was a Portuguese neurologist who refined the lobotomy as a surgical procedure to relieve anxiety, depression and schizophrenia in psychiatric patients. Although there was no empirical evidence supporting his theory, Moniz hypothesized that by severing the connections of the frontal lobe, he could also sever the neural impulses that were responsible for the obsessive, paranoid ideas that characterized his patients’ mental illnesses.

His first lobotomy was performed in 1935 on a woman suffering from severe agitation and paranoia. Though later procedures involved severing the frontal lobe with a wire, in his first attempt, Moniz drilled several holes into the patient’s skull and injected alcohol into the openings. According to his reports, the woman’s condition improved, although he admitted that her emotional affect was compromised as a result of the surgery

Despite the extreme subjectivity in his medical publications and the lack of rational justification regarding the psychosurgery, Moniz’s lobotomy procedure was met with high regard by other neurosurgeons. Many speculate that the desperate need for psychiatric treatment at the time may have contributed to this seemingly unwarranted acceptance of lobotomy into the medical community.

Moniz contributed much to neurology in his time ; besides his infamous lobotomy, he also further developed a technique that allowed doctors to see blood vessels in the brain by injecting radioactive tracers. But because he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1949 (in physiology/medicine) for his psychosurgery, and because of its controversial popularity, this procedure is the contribution that is most attributed to his fame.

Relatives of patients who underwent lobotomies want the nobel prize given to Moniz revoked, despite the fact that he has been dead for over 50 years. These relatives, as well as modern neurologists, contest that the surgical procedure harmed a substantial number of people, was used in inappropriate circumstances (for example, to cure constant headaches, mental retardation, and anxiety), and left the patients severely incapacitated, and emotionally deficient.

Many claim that Moniz’s lobotomy was only a slightly less gruesome version of the procedure developed by U.S. neurosurgeon Walter Freeman, which involved drilling an ice pick above the patient’s eye socket to sever nerve fibers.

The Nobel Foundation claims that Moniz deserved the prize because there were no alternative treatments for psychiatric patients around at the time, and there is no possibility that the award will be revoked.

References:

[http://www.livescience.com/health/ap_050714_lobotomy.html]

Egas Moniz

LMalonson — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:48:21 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Moniz.jpg (11KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) ]][[Category:Neuropsychological profiles]]

Antonio Egas Moniz (1874-1955) was a Portuguese neurologist who refined the lobotomy as a surgical procedure to relieve anxiety, depression and schizophrenia in psychiatric patients. Although there was no empirical evidence supporting his theory, Moniz hypothesized that by severing the connections of the frontal lobe, he could also sever the neural impulses that were responsible for the obsessive, paranoid ideas that characterized his patients’ mental illnesses.

His first lobotomy was performed in 1935 on a woman suffering from severe agitation and paranoia. Though later procedures involved severing the frontal lobe with a wire, in his first attempt, Moniz drilled several holes into the patient’s skull and injected alcohol into the openings. According to his reports, the woman’s condition improved, although he admitted that her emotional affect was compromised as a result of the surgery

Despite the extreme subjectivity in his medical publications and the lack of rational justification regarding the psychosurgery, Moniz’s lobotomy procedure was met with high regard by other neurosurgeons. Many speculate that the desperate need for psychiatric treatment at the time may have contributed to this seemingly unwarranted acceptance of lobotomy into the medical community.

Moniz contributed much to neurology in his time ; besides his infamous lobotomy, he also further developed a technique that allowed doctors to see blood vessels in the brain by injecting radioactive tracers. But because he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1949 (in physiology/medicine) for his psychosurgery, and because of its controversial popularity, this procedure is the contribution that is most attributed to his fame.

Relatives of patients who underwent lobotomies want the nobel prize given to Moniz revoked, despite the fact that he has been dead for over 50 years. These relatives, as well as modern neurologists, contest that the surgical procedure harmed a substantial number of people, was used in inappropriate circumstances (for example, to cure constant headaches, mental retardation, and anxiety), and left the patients severely incapacitated, and emotionally deficient.

Many claim that Moniz’s lobotomy was only a slightly less gruesome version of the procedure developed by U.S. neurosurgeon Walter Freeman, which involved drilling an ice pick above the patient’s eye socket to sever nerve fibers.

The Nobel Foundation claims that Moniz deserved the prize because there were no alternative treatments for psychiatric patients around at the time, and there is no possibility that the award will be revoked.

References:

[http://www.livescience.com/health/ap_050714_lobotomy.html]

File:Moniz.jpg

LMalonson — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:41:43 GMT

LMalonson:

Egas Moniz

LMalonson — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:35:37 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Category:Neuropsychological profiles]]

Antonio Egas Moniz (1874-1955) was a Portuguese neurologist who refined the lobotomy as a surgical procedure to relieve anxiety, depression and schizophrenia in psychiatric patients. Although there was no empirical evidence supporting his theory, Moniz hypothesized that by severing the connections of the frontal lobe, he could also sever the neural impulses that were responsible for the obsessive, paranoid ideas that characterized his patients’ mental illnesses.

His first lobotomy was performed in 1935 on a woman suffering from severe agitation and paranoia. Though later procedures involved severing the frontal lobe with a wire, in his first attempt, Moniz drilled several holes into the patient’s skull and injected alcohol into the openings. According to his reports, the woman’s condition improved, although he admitted that her emotional affect was compromised as a result of the surgery

Despite the extreme subjectivity in his medical publications and the lack of rational justification regarding the psychosurgery, Moniz’s lobotomy procedure was met with high regard by other neurosurgeons. Many speculate that the desperate need for psychiatric treatment at the time may have contributed to this seemingly unwarranted acceptance of lobotomy into the medical community.

Moniz contributed much to neurology in his time ; besides his infamous lobotomy, he also further developed a technique that allowed doctors to see blood vessels in the brain by injecting radioactive tracers. But because he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1949 (in physiology/medicine) for his psychosurgery, and because of its controversial popularity, this procedure is the contribution that is most attributed to his fame.

Relatives of patients who underwent lobotomies want the nobel prize given to Moniz revoked, despite the fact that he has been dead for over 50 years. These relatives, as well as modern neurologists, contest that the surgical procedure harmed a substantial number of people, was used in inappropriate circumstances (for example, to cure constant headaches, mental retardation, and anxiety), and left the patients severely incapacitated, and emotionally deficient.

Many claim that Moniz’s lobotomy was only a slightly less gruesome version of the procedure developed by U.S. neurosurgeon Walter Freeman, which involved drilling an ice pick above the patient’s eye socket to sever nerve fibers.

The Nobel Foundation claims that Moniz deserved the prize because there were no alternative treatments for psychiatric patients around at the time, and there is no possibility that the award will be revoked.

References:

[http://www.livescience.com/health/ap_050714_lobotomy.html]

Luria-Nebraska battery

LMalonson — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:24:50 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Category:Neuropsychological methods]]
'''The Luria Nebraska Battery''' (LNNB) is a standardized test battery that is used to screen and evaluate individuals with neuropsychological impairments. Written by Charles Golden in 1981, the LNNB is based on the work of A. R. Luria, a Russian neuropsychologist who believed in taking a qualitative approach to assessment, even though, at the time, most of the neuropsychological testing focused on quantitative analysis.

Generally speaking, neuropsychological assessment relies on the use of tests (batteries) that are designed to indicate localized or widespread brain damage in an individual, depending on the quality of their performance. These batteries are used by clinicians not only to learn whether or not a brain injury is present, but to learn more about the specific effects of the damage and determine what neuropsychological tasks the individual can and cannot perform. These assessments can have important implications regarding the life of the individual outside of the structured research setting.

The LNNB measures 14 areas: motor, rhythm, tactile, visual, receptive speech, expressive speech, writing, reading, arithmetic, memory, intellectual processes, pathognomic, left hemisphere, and right hemisphere functions. Consisting of 269 test items, the LNNB usually takes two to three hours to administer. Because it is such an exhaustive procedure, it may be unsuitable to assess individuals with a short attention span. In this case, it is suggested that a shorter, more customized battery would be more appropriate to administer.

The LNNB is said to be as effective as the Halstead-Reitan Battery (a more widely used battery) in discriminating between people with psychiatric problems and those with brain-damage. For this reason, it is often implemented in court cases that require an assessment of psychiatric illness or brain damage in the individuals involved.

Despite its relatively good reputation, the LNNB has received some criticism by those in the field. Some researchers claim that the battery may exaggerate the level of brain damage; others claim it does not accurately detect neuropsychological problems. Additionally, it has been said that the intellectual processes portion of the LNNB does not correlate with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), which is a popular measure of intelligence in neuropsychology.

References:

http://www.minddisorders.com

Stirling, J. (2004). Introducing Neuropsychology. East Sussex: Psychology Press.

http://www.cps.nova.edu

Autotopagnosia

LMalonson — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:34:39 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Category:Neuropsychological syndromes]]
'''Autotopagnosia''' is a neuropsychological syndrome characterized by the inability to name or locate parts of one's own (or, in some cases, another person's) body. This peripersonal space disorder is usually associated with generalized brain damage or lesions of the left parietal lobe.

The symptoms of autotopagnosia are widely varied. For example, some individuals with the disorder can correctly identify parts of inanimate objects or animals, but are unable to locate the parts of a human body, whether it is their own or someone else’s. Others can effectively identify isolated parts of a human body (for instance, a picture of an arm by itself), but are unable to identify body parts when they are presented as a whole human body. Because of the symptoms are so highly varied across affected individuals, autotopagnosia (along with most other neuropsychological disorders) likely has more than one underlying cause.

There are several main hypotheses describing the underlying cognitive deficits that might cause the disorder:

1) It is a language problem. More specifically, it is a category-specific comprehension deficit. Because the disorder is often associated with a lesion in the posterior left hemisphere (the part of the brain responsible for language), difficulty in describing body parts (or describing things in general) is likely to occur in affected individuals.
2) It is a visuospatial problem. If the lesion causing the disorder is located in the (visuospatial) parietal lobe, the affected individual would probably have difficulty pointing to parts of an object.
3) It is a body image problem. Since body image is mediated by systems in the left parietal lobe, a disruption of this region might lead to the inability to point to human body parts.

Reference:

Ogden, J. A. (2005). Fractured Minds: A Case Study Approach to Neuropsychology. Second Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Autotopagnosia

LMalonson — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:54:48 GMT

LMalonson:

Autotopagnosia

LMalonson — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:46:41 GMT

LMalonson:

[[Category:Neuropsychological syndromes]]
Autotopagnosia is a neuropsychological syndrome characterized by the inability to name or locate parts of one's own (or, in some cases, another person's) body.

User:LMalonson

LMalonson — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:08:43 GMT

LMalonson:

Lauren Malonson