What Is Cognitive Impairment?

Cognition is an intelligent processing process for the body to recognize and acquire knowledge. It involves a series of casual, psychological and social behaviors such as learning, memory, language, thinking, spirit, and emotion. Cognitive impairment refers to the abnormal pathological process of the brain's advanced intelligent processing related to the above-mentioned learning and memory and thinking judgment, which causes severe learning and memory disorders, and is accompanied by changes such as aphasia or apraxia or failure to recognize or act. The basis of cognition is the normal function of the cerebral cortex, and any factor that causes abnormal function and structure of the cerebral cortex can lead to cognitive impairment. Because the brain's functions are complex and different types of cognitive impairment are related, that is, cognitive problems in one aspect can cause cognitive abnormalities in another aspect or in multiple aspects (for example, if a patient has problems with attention and memory, Defects, there will be obstacles to solving the problem). Therefore, cognitive impairment is one of the most difficult problems in the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases.

Basic Information

English name

cognitive disorder

Visiting department

Department of Psychology

Common locations

brain

Common causes

Any factor that causes abnormal function and structure of cerebral cortex can cause cognitive impairment

Common symptoms

Hypersensitivity, dullness, internal discomfort, hallucinations; excessive memory, memory loss; associative process disorders, thinking logic disorders, delusions, etc.

Clinical manifestations of cognitive impairment

1. Sensory disorders, such as hypersensitivity, dullness, internal discomfort, sensory deterioration, sensory deprivation, pathological illusions, hallucinations, and comprehensive sensory disorders;

2. Memory disorders, such as excessive memory, memory loss, and memory errors;

3. Thinking obstacles, such as abstract summary process obstacles, association process obstacles, thinking logic obstacles, delusions, etc.

The causes of the above-mentioned various cognitive disorders are various. In addition to the causes of organic diseases, most are caused by mental illness. Such as neurasthenia, hysteria, doubt, menopausal syndrome, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, senile dementia, schizophrenia, reactive psychosis, paranoid psychosis, mania, bipolar disorder and so on.

Cognitive Impairment Treatment

1. Symptomatic and neuroprotective treatment

For patients with obvious mental and neurological symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders, symptomatic treatment can be performed according to the condition. In addition, according to the etiology and pathogenesis of cognitive impairment, different nerve cell protective agents can be applied, such as cerebral circulation improvers, energy metabolism activators, neurotransmitters and nerve growth factor protective agents, Ca2 + antagonists, glutamate Receptor antagonists, antioxidants, glial cell regulators, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents are widely used in the treatment of cognitive disorders caused by different diseases.

2. Restore and maintain normal levels of neurotransmitters

A variety of cognitive disorders are related to neurotransmitter abnormalities. For example, dopaminergic neuron damage plays an important role in the pathogenesis of PD, and various strategies for improving dopaminergic nerve function have been produced, including drugs supplementing its precursor L-dopamine. Various cell transplants to replace dopaminergic neurons, and gene therapy to implant enzyme genes that promote dopamine synthesis to promote dopamine production in the striatum or to implant human neurotrophic factor genes to prevent dopaminergic neurons from dying or stimulating Regeneration and functional recovery of the damaged nigrostriatal system. In addition, in view of the degradation of cholinergic neurons in AD patients, the use of cholinesterase inhibitors to block the degradation of acetylcholine in synaptic spaces of nerve cells to increase the content of acetylcholine in the nervous system is currently the only effective strategy for clinical treatment of AD.

3. Surgical treatment

Traditional surgical therapies include pallidectomy, thalamenectomy, and stereotactic implanted brain stimulators. Since the 1990s, a new stereotactic damage therapy with microelectrode positioning and computer control established abroad has achieved great success in treating advanced patients. This technique, which is based on modern electrophysiology techniques, is precisely positioned at the cell level and targeted surgical treatment techniques can have significantly different electrophysiological characteristics according to different parts of the pale globule, such as the relatively irregular or transient burst of the outer part of the pale globule Discharge, and its inner side has a relatively continuous high-frequency discharge, identifying different nucleus cells in the patient's brain, and identifying targets at the cellular level, thereby overcoming individual differences in anatomy and function, making the operation safer and more efficient.