RN Basic Psychiatry Latest Study Guide

REVIEW OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY  Frontal Lobe Functions • Cognitive and intellectual functions: Attention, concentration, registration, reasoning, problem- solving, planning and judgment. • Mood and behaviour control. • Motor language (processing information to produce speech). • Planning and control of voluntary movements. • Sphincter control.  Temporal Lobe Functions • Comprehension and retention of auditory and visual information. • Emotions and sexual activity control.  Parietal Lobe Functions • Interpretation of sensations: touch, pressure (stereognosis). • Appreciation of body image (spatial orientation). • Constructional skills (dressing, drawing … ).  Occipital Lobe Functions • Perception and analysis of visual sensations (colour, shape, dimensions…).  Cerebellum Functions • Coordination of muscle contractions and motor activity. • Maintenance of posture and body balance.  Basal Ganglia Functions • Subconscious control of tone and movements of the skeletal muscles, such as swinging the arms while walking.  Midbrain Functions • Consciousness and arousal (function of the reticular formation which extends also through pons and medulla). • Control of reflexive head and eye movements. • Raphe nuclei function: The raphe nuclei form a collection of serotonergic neurons in the brainstem projecting to a large number of brain structures.  Pons Functions • Connection of various parts of the brain with each other. • Cranial nerve functions (5, 6, 7 and 8). • Locus Coerulus is the most important noradrenergic nucleus in the brain, which has very high density of noradenaline neurons, and numerous projections to other brain regions; especially the cortex and hippocampus. It is essential for the behavioral and physiological expression of anxiety and fear.  Medulla Functions • Medulla contains vital and non-vital centers.  Vital centers: cardiac, respiratory and vasomotor centers.  Non-vital centers: vomiting, swallowing, sneezing, coughing and hiccuping centers. • Cranial nerves functions (9,10 & 11) • Connection of the spinal cord with the brain  Functions of the Thalamus: • Sensory relay station: processing tactile, proprioceptive, pain and temperature information, sending it to sensory cortical areas. • Integrating a large variety of sensory and motor information, and the relation of this information to one’s emotional feelings, subjective states and personality. • Influencing the level of consciousness and alertness through connections with the reticular formation.  Functions of the Hypothalamus Hypothalamus preserves body homeostasis through: • Regulation of food intake: Feeding / hunger center, located in the lateral side of hypothalamus, which is chronically active and its activity is transiently inhibited by activity in the satiety center, located in the ventromedical side, after the ingestion of food. • Regulation of water intake (superiolateral part of