The Effects of Strokes on Cognitive Thinking - Research Paper Example

The Effects of Strokes on Cognitive Thinking Strokes may result in different kinds of physical problems and may affect cognition. Cognition is termed as the way people use their senses to read, learn, talk, understand, remember, write, and reason. Therefore, loss of cognition may affect management skills of the individual in everyday tasks, participate in the process of rehabilitation, and live independently after suffering from the stroke. This paper analyzes the effects of strokes on cognitive thinking. Cerebrovascular disease is cognitive impairment’s second most common cause (O’Brien et al., 2003). Cognitive impairment after stroke mostly results from the accumulation of lacunar infarcts, cerebral hypoperfusion, and ischemic white matter disease all of which may remain unrecognized for as long as three decades which is sufficiently long duration to cause substantial cognitive impairment (Wen et al., 2004). Such strokes mostly affect the connections between the cortex regions which link complex information types, whose disruption causes impairment of cognition. Clinical procedures are used to detect larger strokes while cognitive impairment is mostly detected early on. The earlier the stroke is detected, the sooner the appropriate treatment which can either prevent or delay the onset of cognitive impairment substantially can be initiated. The minimum amount of stroke that is required to cause dementia or cognitive impairment is between 10 ml and 50 ml (Tomlinson, Blessed, and Roth, 1970; Gold et al., 2005) which makes up to 1 per cent to 4 per cent of the total volume of the brain. Dementia or cognitive impairment can also occur with stroke volumes lesser than 10 ml in case they affect the thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus or brainstem. The risk of experiencing cognitive impairment after getting stroke is maximum in the patients of hypertension, atherosclerotic vessel disease, hyperlipidemia, carotid or major cerebral arteries, and diabetes. Strokes affect brain in different ways. The effect of the stroke on the cognition depends on the target region of the brain hit by the stroke and how the brain as well as the overall health is injured. Since different sides of brain function to control different things, a stroke experienced on a particular side of the brain results in problems that are different from the ones experienced when the stroke hits the other side of the brain. The damage to brain caused by stroke can result in loss of linguistic abilities and many also cause loss of verbal memory. The individual’s tendency to remember the things related to words is reduced. Stroke experienced on the other side of the brain may result in problems related to thinking, behavior, and attention. Stroke also damages the front part of the brain, which in turn results in loss of the individual’s ability to organize and control the thoughts and behaviors. The individual experiences problems planning and organizing the steps to accomplish a certain task. When stroke targets the front brain, the patient’s ability to perform tasks or remember specific things is not affected. Many patients experience loss of memory after the stroke, though it does not always happen. Memory is affected by the stroke in different ways. Verbal memory is the memory of words. Visual memory is the memory of faces and things. Damage of memory poses problems in the learning of new skills and information. The patient finds it difficult to remember old information or retrieve new information. Some patients of stroke suffer from vascular dementia (VaD), which serves as a bigger decline in their ability to think. With almost 10 to 20 per cent of Americans suffering from dementia aged more than 65 years also have VaD, this disease is the second most important cause of dementia after the Alzheimer’s disease (National Stroke Association, n.d.). Memory is almost never restored completely after an individual has had stroke. However, chances of recovering at least certain part of the memory instantly after the stroke are great. Many patients benefit from rehabilitation. One of the most common problems experienced with respect to thinking after the stroke is the problem with communication. One of such problems is aphasia. The number of people suffering from aphasia in the US is over a million (National Stroke Association, n.d.), and a vast majority of these people have experienced stroke at least once in their life. Aphasia is the condition in which an individual loses the ability to talk either partially or completely. He/she cannot understand what others speak, read or write. Sometimes, aphasia affects only a certain aspect of language. For instance, the patient may not be able to recall the names of the objects or construct sentences using vocabulary. Aphasia is of different types. These types of aphasia differ according to the part of the brain that is damaged. The most severe form of aphasia is global aphasia. Patients suffering from global aphasia can speak no more than few familiar words while their ability to understand people is tremendously reduced. Often, the patients of global aphasia can neither read nor write. Nonfluent or Broca’s aphasia is another type of aphasia. Patients of this type of aphasia omit works of certain kinds from the sentences, display a slow speech, have to make a lot of effort while speaking, and experience problems with grammar and speak short sentences. Concluding, experience of stroke in a part of brain increases an individual’s susceptibility to getting cognitive impairment. The nature and type of cognitive impairment experienced depends upon which part of the brain has damaged as a result of the stroke. Problems related to cognitive impairment commonly experienced by people after stroke include but are not limited to loss of memory, inability to construct sentences using words, loss of vocabulary, increased dependence on others for accomplishing daily tasks, delayed recall, language syntax, disturbances of attention, and aphasia. The executive dysfunction caused by stroke affects an individual’s ability to analyze, plan, interpret, organize, and process information. The risk of dementia, vascular cognitive impairment and the cognitive decline rate depends upon control of the factors responsible for causing stroke. However, dementia and vascular cognitive impairment generally decline over the passage of time when left untreated. References: Gold, G., Kovari, E., Herrmann, F. R., Canuto, A., Hof, P. R., Michel, J. P., Bouras, C., and Giannakopoulos, P. (2005). Cognitive consequences of thalamic, basal ganglia, and deep white matter lacunes in brain aging and dementia. Stroke. 36, 1184-1188. National Stroke Association. (n.d.). Recovery After Stroke: Thinking and Cognition. Retrieved from http://www.stroke.org/site/DocServer/NSAFactSheet_Cognition.pdf?docID=986. O'Brien, J. T., Erkinjuntti, T., Reisberg, B., Roman, G., Sawada, T., Pantoni, L., Bowler, J. V., Ballard, C., DeCarli, C., Gorelick, P. B., Rockwood, K., Burns, A., Gauthier, S., and DeKosky, S. T. (2003). Vascular cognitive impairment. Lancet Neurology. 2(2), 89-98. Tomlinson, B. E., Blessed, G., and Roth, M. (1970). Observations on the brains of demented old people. Journal of Neurological Science. 11, 205-242. Wen, H. M., Mok, V. C., Fan, Y. H., Lam, W. W., Tang, W. K., Wong, A., Huang, R. X., and Wong, K. S. (2004). Effect of white matter changes on cognitive impairment in patients with lacunar infarcts. Stroke. 35, 1826-1830. Read More