NEUR 3403 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Mini–Mental State Examination, Behaviorism, White Matter
20 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
Glitches in the brain and in consciousness: 1. Epileptic seizures are temporary glitches of varying severity in the brain that can temporarily affect consciousness. Therefore, the study of these temporary glitches becomes interesting and very relevant to understand how consciousness is implemented in the brain. There are three main types of epileptic seizures: absence seizures (petit mal), generalized tonic-clonic seizures (grand mal), and complex partial seizures. Absence seizures last less than 10 seconds and manifest as brief lapses of awareness, with a characteristic fixed stare. During one of these seizures the eeg shows the characteristic feature of 3-4 hz (lower theta) spike-wave discharges. The temporary consciousness impairment associated with the seizures is very variable, severity varies with task, minimally affected in repetitive motor tasks, much more difficulty in recovering consciousness and the actions or cognitive engagement in decision or verbal tasks.
