AOBNP Neurology & Psychiatry key terms

Damage to motor pathways above the anterior horn cell, producing spasticity, hyperreflexia, extensor plantar responses, and weakness without prominent muscle wasting.

Injury to the anterior horn cell, nerve root, or peripheral nerve, causing flaccid weakness, atrophy, fasciculations, and reduced reflexes in the affected muscles.

Extension of the great toe and fanning of the other toes when the lateral sole is stroked, indicating corticospinal tract dysfunction in adults.

Rhythmic involuntary muscle contractions evoked by sudden passive stretch, reflecting hyperactive stretch reflexes from corticospinal tract disease.

Velocity-dependent increase in muscle tone with exaggerated tendon reflexes, resulting from damage to descending inhibitory motor pathways.

Spontaneous, visible twitching of a group of muscle fibers within a motor unit, often a sign of lower motor neuron or nerve irritation.

Acquired impairment of language production or comprehension caused by brain injury, typically involving the dominant hemisphere.

Motor speech disorder from weakness, slowness, or incoordination of the speech muscles, with preserved language content and comprehension.

Failure to attend or respond to stimuli on one side of space or the body, most often after right parietal lesions.

Loss of vision in the same half of each visual field, caused by a lesion behind the optic chiasm in the retrochiasmal visual pathway.

Impaired adduction of one eye with nystagmus of the abducting eye on lateral gaze, from a lesion of the medial longitudinal fasciculus.

Involuntary rhythmic oscillation of the eyes, which may be jerk or pendular, and reflects vestibular or cerebellar pathway dysfunction.

Incoordination of voluntary movement with unsteady gait and impaired limb control, arising from cerebellar, sensory, or vestibular dysfunction.

Extension and internal rotation of the arms with leg extension after a noxious stimulus, indicating severe brainstem injury.

Flexion of the arms with extension of the legs after a noxious stimulus, reflecting damage above the red nucleus level.

A 3-to-15 scoring system rating eye opening, verbal response, and motor response to quantify level of consciousness.

Continuous seizure activity or repeated seizures without recovery of consciousness lasting five minutes or more, requiring urgent treatment.

A transient episode of abnormal, excessive electrical activity in the brain that may produce altered awareness, movements, or sensory symptoms.

Recurrent moderate-to-severe headache, often throbbing and unilateral, accompanied by nausea or sensitivity to light and sound.

Severe unilateral periorbital pain with autonomic signs such as tearing and nasal congestion, occurring in short recurrent attacks.

A brief episode of focal neurologic dysfunction caused by temporary cerebral ischemia without permanent infarction on imaging.

Sudden focal neurologic deficit caused by interruption of cerebral blood flow, producing infarction of brain tissue.

Acute fluctuating disturbance of attention and awareness with altered cognition, usually caused by a medical or toxic condition.

Progressive decline in memory and at least one other cognitive domain severe enough to impair daily function.

Impaired reality testing with hallucinations, delusions, or disorganized thinking that may occur in several psychiatric disorders.

A fixed false belief that is not shared by the person's culture and persists despite clear contrary evidence.

A sensory perception in the absence of an external stimulus, which may be auditory, visual, tactile, gustatory, or olfactory.

Markedly reduced ability to experience pleasure from activities that are normally rewarding.

A syndrome of persistent low mood or loss of interest with changes in sleep, appetite, energy, and concentration.

A period of abnormally elevated or irritable mood with increased energy, decreased need for sleep, and impulsive behavior.

Involuntary repetitive movements, often of the mouth and face, appearing after prolonged use of dopamine-blocking antipsychotic drugs.

Drug-induced movement abnormalities such as tremor, rigidity, and dystonia caused by blockade of dopamine pathways.

A potentially dangerous reaction to serotonergic drugs marked by agitation, tremor, clonus, hyperreflexia, and fever.

A life-threatening reaction to dopamine-blocking drugs with rigidity, high fever, altered consciousness, and autonomic instability.

A state of disorientation and reduced clarity of thinking that may accompany delirium or other acute brain dysfunction.

A cluster of symptoms that follows reduction or cessation of a substance after prolonged heavy use.

A person's ability to understand information and make a particular decision at a specific time.