Term
| 4 things that change in your brain as you age |
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Definition
1. reduction of average brain weight
2. enlargement of the ventricles
3. appearance of degenerative patches
4. neuronal shrinkage |
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Term
| 2 things that are reduced in the brain as you age |
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Definition
1. dendritic trees
2. synaptic numbers |
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Term
| As you age, does blood flow in your brain get increased or reduced? |
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Definition
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Term
| Are both gray and white matter in the brain affected by aging? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is the most constant cognitive sign of aging? |
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Definition
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Term
| Does psychomotor speed increase or decrease as you age? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| connect neuronal groups in many parts of the brain |
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Term
| 4 reasons for the reduction of gray matter as you age |
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Definition
1. shrinkage of cell bodies
2. loss of dendritic branches
3. loss of thin axonal branches & nerve terminals
4. loss of water |
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Term
| Where in the cortex is cortical thinning due to aging most marked? |
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Definition
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Term
| Are synapses lost or gained as we age? |
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Definition
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Term
| What does loss of dopamine receptors do to an aging brain? |
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Definition
| reduces the signal-to-noise ratio for cortical neurons, making them less specific & more prone to erroneous responses |
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Term
| What causes memory impairments as we age? |
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Definition
| anatomic & physiological changes in the hippocampal region |
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Term
| Do old & young brains have different patterns of cortical activation during cognitive tasks even when performance is equal? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is the difference between old & young brains on memory tests? |
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Definition
| elderly people show less hippocampal activation than young people because of age-related alterations in the hippocampal region |
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Term
| What is the difference between old & young brains for successful motor performance? |
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Definition
| larger parts of the cortex & the cerebellum are recruited in elderly people than in young people |
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Term
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Definition
1. intoxications
2. large tumors
3. infections |
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Term
| What causes the most cases of dementia? |
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Definition
| neurodegenerative diseases leading to progressive neuronal loss |
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Term
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Definition
| dementia developed before the age of 60 |
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Term
| Is Alzheimer's disease or frontotemporal dementia more common? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| clumps of misfolded proteins in the neuronal cytoplasm that characterize neurodegenerative diseases |
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