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Cognitive sequelae from methanol poisoning
Bernášková, Lucie ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Šivicová, Gabriela (referee)
This thesis focuses on cognitive functions in patients after methanol poisoning. The theoretical part consists of a description of methanol, characteristics of methanol poisoning and its neurological sequelae. Methanol poisoning affects the basal ganglia, therefore we describe them and their role in cognitive processes. The theoretical part also describes a case of mass methanol poisoning in the Czech Republic in 2012-2013. The practical part compares results of a control group and a group of patients poisoned with methanol in cognitive assessment. Results show that the patients after methanol poisoning have significantly lower scores in tasks testing memory and executive functions than the control group.
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The relationship between subjective perception of cognitive impairment and objective neuropsychological performance
Marková, Hana ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Stehlík, Luděk (referee)
This diploma thesis deals with the topic of Subjective memory complaints (SMC) in elderly population in relation to early diagnostics of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The term of SMC describes patients with subjective perception of cognitive impairment which is not objectivized during a complex neuropsychological assessment. The character of their subjective complaints has not been thoroughly examined, despite their increased risk to develop cognitive impairment, most likely due to AD (Reisberg, et al., 2008). The aim of this cross-sectional study was to verify the clinical significance of the concept of SMC and to characterize subjective complaints in SMC in comparison to patients with cognitive deficit at the stage of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and in comparison to cognitively healthy elderly (HE). SMC and aMCI patients did not differ in the amount of subjective complaints, but SMC patients reported significantly more complaints compared to HE. The difference in the amount of complaints reported by the patients themselves and by their informants was found neither in aMCI, nor in SMC patients. There were identified questions which may distinguish between SMC and aMCI patients, and questions which may distinguish between SMC patients and HE; that means questions able to distinguish...
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Biological changers of CNS caused by trauma
Maulenová, Kristýna ; Šivicová, Gabriela (advisor) ; Kulišťák, Petr (referee)
This thesis focuses on traumatic brain injury and its negative impact on both the brain as a whole and component brain structures. The first two chapters of the theoretical part summarize the information of the anatomy and functions of central nervous system and the most common causes of traumas and its characteristics. The crucial part of the thesis consists of the psychological consequences of traumas arranged according to brain lobe that plays the major role in a clinical manifestation of impaired functions. The thesis also sums up the field of neurodiagnotics and mentions some concrete methods that are being used when dealing with patients after traumas. The last chapter of the theoretical part deals with possibilities and examples of neurorehabilitation as well as factors which are involved in the prognosis of the posttraumatic condition. A part of this chapter also pays attention to the brain plasticity. The last two chapters in this segment refer to other literature from this field. The empirical part presents the research proposal of changes of the brain parts that are involved in facial emotion recognition among TBI patients. The research tools are Ekman 60 Faces Test and an imaging technique SPECT. Key words: Central nervous system, brain lobes, neurodiagnostics, psychological...
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Attention and its aspects of people after traumatic brain injury
Kasalická, Michaela ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Uhlář, Pavel (referee)
The theoretical part of this thesis includes the theoretical concepts of cognitive functions and attention. The following section deals with traumatic brain injuries, their division and measurement of their severity. Another chapter includes characteristics and aspects of attention disorders that can set in as a result of traumatic brain injury, and the problems that can be caused by the attention impairment in the activities of daily living. The main point of this work is the neuropsychological assessment of attention and the following rehabilitation, especially the cognitive rehabilitation of attention and compensatory strategies of attention disorders. The practical part consists in the research proposal of efficacy of physical activity as the supportive supplement to the cognitive rehabilitation of attention via cognitive-rehabilitation program Neurop-2. It is based on the recent findings of the presence and characteristics of neurogenesis in adult persons. Keywords: traumatic brain injury, attention impairment, neuropsychological assessment of attention, cognitive rehabilitation, physical activity
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The therapy of emotional and behavioral problems after acquired brain injury
Piťhová, Zuzana ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Hrachovinová, Tamara (referee)
The changes in emotivity and behavior are common after acquired brain injury, which complicates the readaptation of an individual to his environment. Compared to cognitive problems, these changes are not so greatly regarded because their complexity requires care in the context of its special neuropsychological treatment. The objective of the theoretical part of this thesis was to elucidate the issue of acquired brain injury and summarize current knowledge and experience in the field of therapeutic work with this specific group of people. The aim of the empirical part of this thesis was to design an appropriate educationally based preventive program that would focus on the experience of personality change after ABI. The goal of this program was to provide patients with information about the usual consequences of ABI and to provide a place to share the problems they experience. The effectiveness of this program was measured via the European Brain Injury Questionnaire (EBIQ) and the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (ZSDS). The results were compared in the experimental group (N=30) before and after the completion of the program and in the control group (N=30). In the group that undertook the intervention, the EBIQ-P showed significant improvement in the subscale Physical. The ZSDS results showed...
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Mechanisms involved in neurodegenerative disorders origin and their consequences in neurobiological interactions.
Červinková, Monika ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Šivicová, Gabriela (referee)
Neurodegenerative disorders represent due to their still increasing trend serious problem not only medical, but also socio-economic. The most common disorders in human population include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Underlying ethiopathogenetical mechanisms are not closely clarified yet. Potential conjunction between neurodegenerative disorders and stress is mentioned. Supposed relationship between neurodegenerative disorders and stress is based on knowledge of functional interrelationships among nervous, endocrine and immune systems. Animal models are very helpful for research in objective field and they can contribute to the elucidation of involved biological mechanisms. Knowledge of these processes could enable development of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in future.
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The use of computer programms in rehabilitation after head and brain injury
Plechatá, Adéla ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Stehlík, Luděk (referee)
The theoretical part of the theses deals with options of the use of computer technologies in rehabilitation after head and brain injury. The introductory part outlines the topic of neuropsychological rehabilitation, its rudiments and major models. The following part contains a summary of benefits and disadvantages of computer-assisted rehabilitation and a short familiarization with studies considering efficiency of this approach in rehabilitation. Furthermore, this part contains a list of the most often used professional rehabilitation programms and their area of application. The third section follows up the topic of virtual reality and its advantages over simpler softwares. Moreover, there is also a summary of findings considering its efficiency. The last theoretical chapter describes principles and applications of EEG biofeedback therapy. Studies dealing with the efficiency of neurofeedback in rehabilitation after a traumatic brain injury are shortly mentioned at the end of this chapter. The practical part contains a propposed research project which deals with the effectiveness of neurofeedback in rehabilitation of deficits in attention, memory and executive functions of individuals after a traumatic brain injury. This is an experimental randomized controled study.
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Neuropsychological correlates of conversion to dementia in patients with mild cognitive impairment
Šiffelová, Kamila ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Krámská, Lenka (referee)
Identification of individuals with low and high risk for future dementia has emerged as an important clinical and public health issue. To address this issue, we compared two commonly used memory tests initially in non-demented elderly persons with subjective memory complaint or mild cognitive impairment and followed them for an average of two years. The first test called Enhanced Cued Recall (ECR), provides support for the semantic encoding of memorandum at the time of the study and supplies category cues at the time of retrieval whereas the second test, the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), does not support this paradigm. In this retrospective study, we compared initial neuropsychological performance of patients from the Memory Disorders Clinic in the Department of Neurology at Motol University Hospital. The results were analyzed among the patients who developed dementia and those who did not. Then, the prediction abilitities of the two measures of memory were compared. Our results showed that the test AVLT predicts incident dementia better than the test ECR. The group likely to develop dementia becomes a target for early therapeutic interventions. Keywords: prediction of dementia, conversion to dementia, Alzheimer's disease, test AVLT, test ECR
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The Effectiveness of Cognitive Training in Patients after Traumatic Brain Injury or Stroke
Kozáková, Eva ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Stehlík, Luděk (referee)
Recently, the literature concerned with the possibilities and limitations of working memory training has been growing rapidly. Nonetheless, there are still no clear answers about the principles of its effectiveness or transfer effect. The main questions we ask are about effectiveness of cognitive training in patients after stroke or TBI. To our knowledge this group hasn't been studied in this context yet. To do this, we compare two types of cognitive training - extensively studied N-back training (n=11) and still more popular group cognitive therapy (n=9) with a placebo control group (n=5) who recieves "training" in a simple computer game. The placebo control group then continues in N-back training. Our hypothesis is that after 3 weeks the two trainings should lead to significantly higher gains in cognitive tests scores than the placebo condition. Also, we expected N-back to be more effective than group cognitive training in domains more closely related to executive control. We tested attention, fluid intelligence, short-term and working memory. We also recorded participants well-being. Following training, there were no significant differences between N-back and group training. N-back group scored significantly higer on Trail Making Test A than control group (p=0,026). Although our study doesn't...
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Comparison of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the Mini-Mental State Examination in screening diagnostics of Alzheimer's disease
Orlíková, Hana ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Hrachovinová, Tamara (referee)
This thesis deals with the neuropsychological diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. The aim is to evaluate the psychometric characteristics ofthe new Czech translation of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) by comparison with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a method widely used by doctors inscreening diagnostics of Alzheimer's disease. The theoretical part deals with the diagnostics of Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment. We describe international diagnostic criteria of cognitive disorders and provide an overview of the screening neuropsychological methods most commonly used by Czech specialists. We summarize the current psychometric and psychodiagnostic findings on these methods and focuse on description of MMSE and MoCA. In the empirical part we compare Czech version of MMSE and MoCA-CZ (the new Czech translation of the test). We examined 38 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 70 cognitively healthy seniors. The results show that MoCA-CZ is sufficiently valid and reliable screening method that accurately distinguishbetween healthy subjects and patiens with Alzheimer's disease. We believe that it can enrich screening tools that are available to Czech experts. Key words: Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Mini-Mental State Examination, Alzheimer's disease, psychodiagnostics,...
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