Questions on the cognative functions on the Aging section

Hi Folks,When doing the table cognitive labels and tags, I saw that the terms have not always been used consistently.
The terms that are being used are at http://accessibility.athena-ict.com/cognativefunction.shtml. I have given short  descriptions here for your convenience.




I have copied some of the "Cognitive Function Decline Due to Dementia" section and put my questions in brackets next to it.
 Can someone from the aging subgroup answer these question? I can then put any changes in the github version.




Visual Recognition Skills 
In Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer’s, the parietal and occipital lobes of the brain are affected by the same abnormal proteins found in Alzheimer’s causing difficulty in seeing where and what things are.
(Lisa's question: Visual recognition does not relate to seeing and sight but to understanding and recognising what is seen. Is that affected? )
Phoneme Processing 
In frontotemporal dementia, the temporal lobe is affected causing difficulty with speech and language.
(Lisa's question: Phoneme processing relates to the blending and manipulation of sounds(phonemes) to construct and deconstruct words  -is that affected? )
Cross-modal Association
People with Alzheimer’s disease have a buildup of abnormal proteins in the Hippocampus which causes it to malfunction, affecting the ability to recognize places and they may become disoriented.
 (Lisa's question: Cross-modal association regards matching the visual object with its name or sound -such as a letter with a sound -is that affected?   )
Working Memory 
In Alzheimer’s disease, the buildup of abnormal proteins in the Hippocampus affects the ability to store new memories.
When the temporal lobe is affected by fronto-temporal dementia, it causes difficulty in recollection of factual information.
(Lisa's question:  Working memory is not really what we consider to be memory. It is more like RAM keeping transotory information  - memories - typically from 10 to 15 seconds - while they are manipulated. For example, remembering the binging of the sentence whil you read the end of the sentence, and then you process it all together.  - is that affected? )




All the best

Lisa Seeman

Athena ICT Accessibility Projects 
LinkedIn, Twitter

Received on Tuesday, 21 October 2014 05:08:31 UTC