PSYC 3325 Study Guide - Final Guide: Blindsight, Thalamus, Retinohypothalamic Tract
23 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Studied nuns (a very uniform population) in early 80"s he began recruiting nuns for this study and got their baseline data and studied their everyday life, for years. From this study some factors protected them from cognitive decline: diet, exercise/active, education (cognitive activity) More education is negatively correlated with early dementia: sex hormones. Women who have replaced hormones after menopause have better cogni- tion or preserving effect. Memory loss, confusion: neuropathology, amyloid plaques start accumulating which are toxic to neurons, tau tangles: a cell structure that helps move things start to accumulation and when it"s built up it is toxic to neurons. Attacks the acetylcholine system: cause: remains unknown, build up of plaques and tangles are the result of something not the cause, treatment: no cause so no treatment. Neuropathologist was given the nun"s brains after death. Many that are cognitively im- paired didn"t necessarily mean their wasn"t high plaques and tangles.
