PSY-1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Morphine, Traumatic Brain Injury, Methylphenidate
Document Summary
At one extreme, damage to very localized areas of the brain can sometimes disrupt specific aspects of consciousness while leaving others intact. Damage to an area of the temporal lobes called the fusiform face area leads to prosopagnosia. An inability to consciously recognize familiar faces. Epileptic seizures are caused by sudden, brief, excessive and synchronized neural activity in the brain. Seizures generally involve dysregulation of neurotransmitter systems that regulate overall brain activity. Gaba is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter, slowing brain activity. Glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter, increasing brain activity. Partial seizures, which begin with dysregulated activity in a specific area of the brain down. (usually the temporal lobe) Often preceded by a change in consciousness called an aura . Patients describe auras as disruptions of familiarity, either a sense that they are repeating the past or asudden feeling of disorientation and strangeness. In generalized seizures, affecting the whole brain, consciousness is lost completely.
