Clinical Neuropsychology Final Essays

Clinical Neuropsychology Final Essays Clinical Neuropsychology Final Essay Clinical Neuropsychology Final Essay Purposes of neurophysiology Terminology What Can be Affected and How Purpose: To determine effects of damage. That is, the deficits, practical consequences, prognosis Client care and treatment planning: o Descriptive evaluation of: clients capabilities and limitations (take care of self? Finances? Driving? Job change needed? , psychological change, impact on self and others o Can retraining be useful? O Explaining to client diagnosis, alterations in behavior and abilities, and treatment plan o Help set realistic goals Provision of rehabilitation: assess and provide! O Individualized! Retraining? Medications, Inc side effects? Surgery? O Repeat testing to examine improvements o Evaluate effectiveness of treatment? Cost worth it? Brain Damage/ Dysfunction Consciousness/ Awareness Emotion/ Personality Attention Executive Functioning Cognition Receptive Memory/Learning Thinking Expressive Cognitive processes Receptive issues related to how we take in and integrate information Memory/ Learning issues related to how we maintain information in our brains and our ability to retrieve it Thinking issues related to the operations our brains perform on that information (organization, conceptualization, application) Expressive issues related to the communication of information or how we act on that information which ranges from alert to coma; disturbances usually reflect brain pathology; also can encompass awareness Activity rate- behavioral slowing common in brain damage, often appearing as slowed processing speed Attention- widely variable across and within individuals (think: fatigue, novel vs.. Typical); limited capacity; types: Focused/selective- concentration, this requires that we filter out extraneous stimul i o Sustained- maintaining attention o Divided- multitasking o Alternating- shifting focus Executive Functioning Set of processes that all have to do with managing oneself and ones resources in order to achieve a goal (I. E. AOL-directed behavior); the conductor of cognitive skills Mental control and self regulation o Planning and straightening o Decision-making o Organizing thoughts and activities o Proportioning tasks o Integrating and managing mental functions o Managing space and time Inhibition of habitual responses o Filtering out irrelevant stimuli Deficits o Diminished capacity for self-control: think impulsive, emotional liability/flattening, problems shifting attention Think hyperactive, careless, difficulty managing emotions o Difficulties in initiating behavior o Decreased/absent motivation (inertia) o Deficits in planning and completing activities needed to reach a goal o Think ADD Emotion/Personality Interplay between: 1. Direct result of damage, 2. Type and severity o f brain damage, 3. Personal and loved ones reactions to deficits e. G. Depression and anxiety Rigidity and COD traits- think getting stuck in current thoughts, no attention shifting Reduced social sensitivity Distinction- often result of frontal lobe damage, often not aware of behavior Lack of awareness, leading to less insight into effects of actions and not showing sensitivity Altered sexual drive and functioning Emotional liability o Pseudopodium state- brief intense affective episodes that are mood incongruent, person can usually identify a mismatch after o Under stress or fatigue, reactions mood congruent but out of proportion in both intensity and length

SPIN EVERYTHING

SPIN EVERYTHING I recently wrote a guest post for Carol Tices phenomenal blog called MAKE A LIVING WRITING. My post was entitledHow I Got More Writing Assignments With Multiple Personality Querying. makealivingwriting.com/2012/07/25/multiple-personality-query-letters/ In answering the comments, I realized that as writers, we have to spin everything we do. No, spin is not a bad four-letter word. Per Wikipedia, the public relations version of the word SPIN is a form of propaganda, achieved through providing an interpretation of an event or campaign to persuade public opinion in favor or against a certain organization or public figure. That definition might be a bit too defined, however, because spin is basically persuasion to achieve an end. Absolutely everything you write has SPIN in it. Every friggin thing. When you write a blog, you are coaxing people to follow you, maybe buy your work. When you pitch a magazine, you are convincing the editor you have the qualifications to write the feature. When you query an agent or publisher, you are enticing (hopefully not begging) them to acquire your writing. When you leave a comment on a blog, Facebook or Twitter, you are leaving a piece of yourself, hoping someone takes interest and follows you. Never do we write without a purpose, without the effort of grabbing people and drawing them in. i.e., SPIN But this is also a form of showing how your qualifications match the needs of the reader/agent/editor/magazine. Its not begging. Showing someone how much you know, how you achieved that knowledge, and where you are currently appreciated, is no more than matching your needs with theirs. To NOT do so is almost a deception in itself. So get over the queasiness of promoting yourself. Its a moral duty to paint yourself in your best light . . . so the person on the other end can make the best informed decision about you. Its not blatant self-promotion. Its telling the truth. (And SPIN can be a GOOD thing.)