Amnestic aphasia - I see and know an object, but I cannot name it! What you need to know about amnestic aphasia Examples of activities for amnestic aphasia

Symptoms

Information to the brain can come from a visual or auditory analyzer; therefore, 2 forms of amnestic aphasia are clinically distinguished, depending on which way of receiving information from the outside is most affected.

1. Acoustic-mnestic develops when the connections between the auditory analyzer and the memory center are damaged, a violation of auditory-verbal memory appears (with damage to the middle parts of the temporal lobe cortex):

2. Optical-mnestic aphasia is characterized by a disconnection between the visual image of an object and its name, due to which a person cannot name the object, but easily describes its purpose. This type of aphasia occurs when the junction of the temporal and occipital lobes in the angular gyrus is damaged. The main symptoms are:

The division into these types can be called conditional, since damage to any one small area of ​​the brain very rarely occurs, so in most situations combinations are observed various types aphasia.

In amnestic aphasia, the choice of words that pop up in the patient’s consciousness is impaired. Severe forms of aphasia are not difficult to recognize; it is much more difficult with mild memory impairments. Sometimes the fact that a person has problems remembering the names of objects becomes noticeable only after long-term communication - such people are good at finding synonyms for words that they cannot remember, using speech cliches and memorized phrases.

Principles of treatment

First of all, you need to find out the cause of amnestic aphasia and try to eliminate it. Unfortunately, the damaged cells of the speech center will no longer be able to fully perform their functions. Treatment is aimed at developing new associative connections in the brain so that neighboring healthy brain cells take over the functions of the lost ones. So, if, for example, auditory-verbal perception is mainly impaired, then the emphasis is on finding the right words with preferred use visual analyzer, and vice versa.

Teaching a patient with a severe form of aphasia resembles the process of socialization of a small child who does not know what something is called, but over time, after repeated repetition, the name of a particular object is firmly fixed in memory by building visual-speech and auditory-speech connections. A similar process occurs in the brain of a person suffering from amnesia, only it proceeds much more slowly.

The best results are achieved if treatment is started in the first days from the onset of the disease.

I often forget words

Hello! Does the fact that you forget some words bother you a lot?

Psychologist, Body-oriented therapist

Hello. Certainly! I’m not supposed to for work either. And in ordinary conversations it prevents you from expressing your thoughts more correctly.

not allowed for work

how often does this happen to you?

Hello! Maybe this is resistance to some internal attitude related to your work or responsibility.

I called my hobby my job

Do you have some kind of ambiguous attitude towards your hobby?

Psychologist, Psychoanalytic therapist

Hello. Certainly! It interferes with my hobby (writing) and slows down the process. And in ordinary conversations it prevents you from expressing your thoughts more correctly.

Does it make sense to go to a therapist with such a problem or are there any other symptoms needed to be sent for examination? Or just read good books more?

When I read your opening message, I was surprised - the word “insipid” is not so often used. Then the wording itself worries you that you are forgetting the words - but this is a common occurrence, calling something a “thing.” I have a hypothesis that you have some exaggerated, maybe even categorical, demands on your language proficiency, maybe something personal is tied to this - and you yourself unconsciously resist this requirement, forgetting the words. Perhaps, if you have procrastination in your desire to reach the professional level, it is of the same nature.

I forget the names of objects

Who is not familiar with the situation when you painfully remember the right word? Most often this is explained by banal forgetfulness. But language can become a real enemy if there is a “breakdown” in the parts of the brain responsible for speech: it becomes slurred, the names of basic things are forgotten, a person repeats obsessive phrases or says something completely different from what he would like. However, his hearing and intelligence remain the same.

Our lives, and in particular our social well-being, largely depend on how and what we say. An adult who has lost the ability to articulately express his thoughts feels discomfort in any society. He strives for solitude, but silence and loneliness only aggravate speech deviations. Meanwhile, many speech disorders, if their cause is identified and the correct treatment regimen is prescribed, can be corrected.

Why can the speech apparatus get out of control?

It is known that for creative people and left-handers the right hemisphere of the brain plays a “leading” role, while for logicians and right-handers the left hemisphere plays a “leading” role. The speech control centers are located precisely in the cortex of the dominant hemisphere. They are responsible for the perception and reproduction of oral and written speech. When we speak, a complex system of cranial nerves operates that control the “speaking” muscles. For example, to say “oh”, you need to use about 80 muscles.

If any disease affects the speech centers in the cerebral cortex, aphasia develops - a speech disorder.

With sensory aphasia, a person ceases to understand someone else's spoken and written speech. At the same time, he retains the ability to pronounce individual phrases, but he is not able to completely control his speech, and this is expressed in excessive talkativeness, “verbal hash.”

Motor aphasia is characterized by muteness or speech difficulties. As a rule, the vocabulary is limited; in a conversation, a person has difficulty choosing words. The same problems arise when writing. However, understanding one's own and others' speech is preserved.

And finally, amnestic aphasia - when the names of objects are forgotten.

It happens that speaking ability suffers due to damage to the cranial nerves that control the muscles of the larynx, pharynx and tongue. Due to their paralysis or paresis (partial paralysis), aphonia appears - loss of sonority of the voice, painful hoarseness. These disorders can also be caused by dysarthria, aptly called by the people “twisted tongue” or “porridge in the mouth.” With diseases of the cerebellum, which is responsible for the coordination of movements, a person begins to speak in a drawn out and intermittent manner, which in medicine is called scanned speech.

The most common causes of speech abnormalities in adults are vascular disorders of the brain, mainly the consequences of strokes. Vascular insufficiency, tumors and inflammatory diseases brain, Alzheimer's disease. Less commonly, the speech apparatus suffers after head injuries, poisoning or drug overdoses. As a rule, speech disorders go hand in hand with other “brain” symptoms - paralysis, disruption of normal sensitivity and coordination, dizziness, and repeated vomiting.

Therapy, which includes two stages, will help you regain the joy of human communication.

Treatment of a disease that causes speech impairment.

Rehabilitation sessions with a speech therapist.

You should visit a speech therapist as early as possible: a specialist will speed up recovery by restoring vocabulary and the remaining elements of the speech system. It is very important to exercise regularly, according to the regimen prescribed by your doctor.

It’s good if relatives take an active part in classes and help do the speech therapist’s “homework.” With sensory aphasia, it is better to associate speech therapy exercises with emotionally charged actions - singing, dancing, games. You shouldn’t build a wall of silence around a person. On the contrary, you need to constantly talk to him, even if he does not understand everything. In most cases, thanks to classes and treatment, speech can be restored - partially or completely.

Something has been going on with my memory lately. I sometimes forget the name of some everyday item.

I sometimes read scientific literature. I'm in college.

Perhaps you spend too much time studying and take too much responsibility for all your assignments. All this threatens overwork. It is quite possible that such forgetfulness is just the first reaction to overwork. Try to stress less. Spend more time on some enjoyable activities that give you pleasure and help you relax and find peace of mind. Gradually everything should get better. At a young age there should not be serious problems with memory :-)))

What can be considered normal forgetfulness and what is not? (test questions)

I can't remember my PIN code or the name of my favorite movie... Or why did you just walk into the room? We all have those moments of forgetfulness, and it's natural to worry about what's happening to our memory.

The point is that it is normal to forget things. Scientific research shows that even completely healthy people can suffer up to 30 memory lapses per week.

"The problem is that we tend to expect too much from our memory capabilities," says Dr Jo Iddon, a clinical psychologist with a PhD in neuropsychology from London.

“Many people are very worried about their memory. We all think we have a worse memory than we actually do,” she says. “We are perfectionists, and we believe that all things that happen are predictable. But memory is not predictable. And yet, we are all prone to these erroneous judgments. Your memory depends on how tired you are, whether you are hungover, whether you are stressed or tired from a life situation (for example, having a baby).”

Experts have determined when memory problems are normal and when they may be a sign to seek medical help.

NORMAL MEMORY PROBLEMS

The following types of memory lapses are normal and are generally not considered warning signs of dementia:

• Forget why you entered, for example, into a room.
• It takes a few minutes to remember where your car is parked.
• Sometimes you forget to call a friend or forget about a meeting while, for example, taking care of children.
• Forgetting something trivial that a friend mentioned the day before.
• Forgetting the name of someone you just met.
• Forgetting where you left things that you use regularly, such as glasses or keys.
• Briefly forget the name of a friend or automatically call a grandson by the name of your son.
• Briefly forget the name of an object.

Why might this happen?

“Our immediate short-term memory is very easily distracted,” says Dr Oliver Cockerell, consultant neurologist at the London Clinic.

So why do we forget trivial information?

“Your brain knows that it is unlikely that you need to constantly remember such routine tasks as, for example, climbing stairs, because... this information is contained in long-term memory. Quite quickly this information is restored, so the brain erases it from the “operative” memory to make room for more important things. That's why we sometimes can't remember why we went into a room."

Dr Marie Janson, from the Alzheimer's Institute in the UK, explains: “The brain has to decide whether new information is needed and worth remembering. If needed, I will put it in long-term memory; if not, then it is deleted.”

Stress, sadness and lack of sleep can affect memory, as can trying to do too many things at once.

WHEN SHOULD YOU BE A LITTLE WORRIED?

• When multitasking becomes difficult - a good cook suddenly finds that cooking the Sunday roast overwhelms him.
• Problems arise with orientation in familiar places, for example, you regularly cannot find your car in the usual parking lot.
• You forget the names of close relatives and friends.
• There are problems recognizing faces, colors, shapes and words.
• You repeat the same question to which you already received an answer half an hour ago.
• Personality and behavior style changes. For example, a socially active person turns into a recluse.
• You often find that you have left an item in the wrong place. For example, you left your keys in the lock and don’t remember it.

Why might this happen?

Many of these symptoms may actually be a sign of depression, stress, or lack of concentration.

However, they may be early sign dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

“There is a type of dementia where memory is not very affected, but the part of the brain responsible for visual processing is damaged,” adds Dr. Anna Corbett - coordinator scientific research in the society for the study of this disease.

“A huge number of sick people cannot remember people’s names. However, the bottom line is that if you are aware of your memory problems, you are unlikely to have dementia."

SIGNS INDICATING THAT YOU NEED TO CONTACT A SPECIALIST.

• Ask for a cup of tea without realizing that it is already in front of you.
• You forget the names of your grandchildren, but your childhood memories remain vivid.
• Losing routine skills to perform everyday tasks, such as doing laundry.
• It is difficult to remember the structure of family ties, such as which of your grandchildren is whose child.
• Judgments are violated, for example, wear a coat in summer.
• Become unable to tell the purpose of everyday household items.
• You don't recognize friends and family members.
• Leaving things in strange places, such as a kettle under the bed or a wallet in the refrigerator.
• There is a feeling of disorientation in time and place - frequently visited places seem unfamiliar.

Why might this happen?

Dementia or Alzheimer's disease affects the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for short-term memory. Long-term memory is usually not affected in Alzheimer's disease.

"People with Alzheimer's disease can't convert short-term data into long-term data, so it gets erased right away," says Dr. Anne Corbett.

Early signs of Alzheimer's or just forgetfulness?

Where is the line between normal forgetfulness and the first warning signs of Alzheimer's disease?

Each of us at least once asked ourselves the question of how intelligence and memory change in old age, whether it is possible to recognize the first signs of their deterioration in loved ones, and what needs to be done to delay their deterioration.

Do you forget where you put your keys, can’t remember why you came into the room, and the name you need suddenly disappears from your memory? Anyone can forget something because of large quantity information, stress, overwork and exhaustion of the nervous system. In such a situation, distraction of attention and rare “memory lapses” for events and names are possible. But after rest or vacation, a healthy person’s memory is restored. If after rest you do not notice any improvement or the symptoms progress, this is a reason to consult a doctor.

Most often, this disease manifests itself in older people after 60 years of age, but it also occurs in young people.

Is it possible to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease?

The risk of Alzheimer's disease is reduced with a healthy lifestyle. You should avoid overwork, stress, do not forget about rest, physical exercise, spend more time outdoors, maintain a balanced diet.

Many believe that with retirement and upon reaching old age, a decrease in attention and memory in older people is a natural process. In general, this is the case, especially if no measures are taken to prevent them. Therefore, very often, even after noticing the first signs of deterioration in memory, motor skills and attention in grandparents, their relatives are in no hurry to seek help from specialists, risking missing the symptoms of such a formidable disease as Alzheimer’s disease, ultimately ending up seeing a doctor in the later stages development of the disease. iStock

Signs of Alzheimer's disease

So, what you need to pay attention to if you have elderly relatives, or perhaps you yourself have already reached your sixth decade:

1. Decreased short-term memory. People with impaired short-term memory function find it increasingly difficult to remember some current moments. For example, turn off the water or light, and also perform actions that are predominantly automated in nature: the usual rituals of washing hands, washing dishes, cleaning the bed, etc. Such a person does not remember whether he did this recently or not. But he can guess that he forgot something, for example, seeing the light on in the hallway or finding dry soap in the bathroom, since the ability to form long logical chains at this stage is not lost.

2. Deterioration in concentration. It becomes increasingly difficult to maintain attention for a long period of time, especially if it intellectual activity. For example, concentrate on reading a book or instructions for some device. In order to grasp the essence, you have to re-read it several times in a row.

3. Difficulty in perceiving new information and deteriorating learning skills. We have all repeatedly observed how grandparents clumsily try to master modern technology and remember “fashionable” words. Even acquiring new motor skills, for example, when performing physical therapy exercises, is difficult. In the case of Alzheimer's disease, this process becomes even more difficult and lengthy, and sometimes completely impossible. It is very difficult to teach such patients something new, even simple, for example, how to use mobile phone. This occurs both due to memory loss and deterioration in concentration.

4. Loss of previously acquired skills. What was previously easy and simple now turns into a complex and painful process. Thus, the patient may painfully remember how to prepare an omelette for breakfast, or how to load laundry into a washing machine. He may confuse the sequence of actions, and skip some altogether.

5. Impoverishment of emotions and vocabulary. Speech becomes less rich and emotionally charged. The patient replaces complex concepts and expressions with simple ones, and replaces long sentences with short ones. At the same time, the ability to express emotions decreases, facial expressions become poor, and the face may resemble a mask. The speed of speech also decreases, and some words completely fall out of memory. In this case, the patient may be trying to describe a concept or object whose name he has forgotten. For example, if we are talking about a tonometer: “An object that is used to measure pressure.” Those. he remembers the purpose of the device, but is unable to remember the word itself.

6. A very important sign is a violation of motor-spatial skills, namely, a decrease in the ability to navigate the area, perform some simple actions that require the participation of fine motor skills, and a slower pace of actions. Patients can easily get lost even in a well-known place, do not find their floor and apartment, and begin to dress and undress slowly. The process of fastening buttons and zippers is significantly lengthened. Often things end up being fastened incorrectly or put on inside out. Having partially lost spatial perception, patients find it difficult to determine the distance to objects, height, and depth. The gait becomes uncertain, slow, and movement is constrained.

What to do?

If you notice the above signs in yourself or your loved ones, do not delay visiting a doctor. This could be a neurologist, therapist, psychiatrist or geriatrician - a specialist who deals with diseases associated with old age. The patient will be asked to undergo cognitive tests, and magnetic resonance imaging is also possible. Only after this the doctor will be able to make a final diagnosis.

Kirill Arkhangelsky, medical expert, deputy chief physician for medical affairs, SM-Clinic

Memory disorders: why memory becomes poor, normal and connection with diseases, treatment

Memory is an important function of our central nervous system to perceive received information and store it in some invisible “cells” of the brain in reserve, in order to retrieve and use it in the future. Memory is one of the most important abilities of a person’s mental activity, therefore the slightest memory impairment burdens him, he is knocked out of the usual rhythm of life, suffering himself and irritating those around him.

Memory impairment is most often perceived as one of the many clinical manifestations of some neuropsychic or neurological pathology, although in other cases forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are the only signs of a disease, the development of which no one pays attention to, believing that a person is like this by nature .

The big mystery is human memory

Memory is a complex process that occurs in the central nervous system and involves the perception, accumulation, retention and reproduction of information received at different periods of time. We think most about the properties of our memory when we need to learn something new. The result of all efforts made during the learning process depends on how someone manages to catch, hold, and perceive what they see, hear or read, which is important when choosing a profession. From a biological point of view, memory can be short-term and long-term.

Information received in passing or, as they say, “it went into one ear and out of the other” is short-term memory, in which what is seen and heard is postponed for several minutes, but, as a rule, without meaning or content. So, the episode flashed and disappeared. Short-term memory does not promise anything in advance, which is probably good, because otherwise a person would have to store all the information that he does not need at all.

However, with certain efforts by a person, information that has fallen into the zone of short-term memory, if you hold your gaze on it or listen and delve into it, will go into long-term storage. This also happens against a person’s will if some episodes are often repeated, have special emotional significance, or for various reasons occupy a separate place among other phenomena.

When assessing their memory, some people claim that their memory is short-term, because everything is remembered, assimilated, retold in a couple of days, and then just as quickly forgotten. This often happens when preparing for exams, when information is put aside only for the purpose of reproducing it to decorate the grade book. It should be noted that in such cases, turning again to this topic when it becomes interesting, a person can easily restore seemingly lost knowledge. It’s one thing to know and forget, and another thing to not receive information. But here everything is simple - the acquired knowledge, without much human effort, was transformed into sections of long-term memory.

Long-term memory analyzes everything, structures it, creates volume and purposefully stores it for future use indefinitely. Everything is based on long-term memory. Memorization mechanisms are very complex, but we are so accustomed to them that we perceive them as natural and simple things. However, we note that for the successful implementation of the learning process, in addition to memory, it is important to have attention, that is, to be able to concentrate on the necessary objects.

It is common for a person to forget past events after some time if he does not periodically retrieve his knowledge in order to use it, so the inability to remember something should not always be attributed to a memory impairment. Each of us has experienced the feeling when “it’s spinning in our heads, but it doesn’t come to mind,” but this does not mean that serious disorders have occurred in our memory.

Why do memory lapses happen?

The causes of memory and attention impairment in adults and children may be different. If a child with congenital mental retardation immediately has problems with learning, then he will come to adulthood with these disorders. Children and adults can react differently to the environment: the child’s psyche is more delicate, so it endures stress more difficult. In addition, adults have long learned what a child is still trying to master.

As sad as it may be, the trend towards the use of alcoholic beverages and drugs by teenagers, and even young children left without parental supervision, has become frightening: cases of poisoning are not so rarely recorded in reports from law enforcement agencies and medical institutions. But for a child’s brain, alcohol is a powerful poison that has an extremely negative effect on memory.

True, some pathological conditions that are often the cause of absent-mindedness and poor memory in adults are usually excluded in children (Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis, osteochondrosis).

Causes of memory impairment in children

Thus, the causes of memory and attention impairment in children can be considered:

• Lack of vitamins, anemia;
• Asthenia;
• Frequent viral infections;
• Traumatic brain injuries;
• Stressful situations (dysfunctional family, despotism of parents, problems in the team that the child attends);
• Poor eyesight;
• Brain tumors;
• Mental disorder;
• Poisoning, alcohol and drug use;
• Congenital pathology in which mental retardation is programmed (Down syndrome, etc.) or other (any) conditions (lack of vitamins or microelements, use of certain medicines, a change in metabolic processes that is not for the better), contributing to the formation of attention deficit disorder, which, as is known, does not improve memory.

Causes of problems in adults

In adults, the reason for poor memory, absent-mindedness and inability to concentrate for a long time are various diseases acquired during life:

Of course, anemia of various origins, lack of microelements, vegetative-vascular dystonia, diabetes mellitus and other numerous somatic pathologies lead to impaired memory and attention, and contribute to the appearance of forgetfulness and absent-mindedness.

What types of memory disorders are there? Among them are dysmnesia (hypermnesia, hypomnesia, amnesia) - changes in memory itself, and paramnesia - distortion of memories, to which the patient’s personal fantasies are added. By the way, those around them, on the contrary, consider some of them to be more of a phenomenal memory than a violation of it. True, experts may have a slightly different opinion on this matter.

Dysmnesia

Phenomenal memory or mental disorder?

Hypermnesia - with this disorder, people remember and perceive quickly; information put aside many years ago pops up in the memory for no reason, “rolls up”, returns to the past, which does not always evoke positive emotions. A person himself does not know why he needs to store everything in his head, but he can reproduce some long-past events down to the smallest detail. For example, an elderly person can easily describe in detail (down to the teacher’s clothes) individual lessons at school, retell the literary montage of a pioneer gathering, and it is not difficult for him to remember other details regarding his studies at the institute, professional activities, or family events.

Hypermnesia, present in a healthy person in the absence of other clinical manifestations, is not considered a disease; rather, on the contrary, this is exactly the case when they talk about phenomenal memory, although from the point of view of psychology, phenomenal memory is a slightly different phenomenon. People who have a similar phenomenon are able to remember and reproduce huge amounts of information that is not associated with any special meaning. These can be large numbers, sets of individual words, lists of objects, notes. Great writers, musicians, mathematicians and people in other professions that require genius abilities often have such a memory. Meanwhile, hypermnesia in a healthy person who does not belong to the cohort of geniuses, but has a high intelligence quotient (IQ), is not such a rare occurrence.

As one of the symptoms of pathological conditions, memory impairment in the form of hypermnesia occurs:

• For paroxysmal mental disorders (epilepsy);
• In case of intoxication with psychoactive substances (psychotropic drugs, narcotic drugs);
• In the case of hypomania - a condition similar to mania, but not reaching it in severity. Patients may experience increased energy, increased vitality, and increased ability to work. With hypomania, memory and attention disorders are often combined (disinhibition, instability, inability to concentrate).

Obviously, only a specialist can understand such subtleties and differentiate between normal and pathological conditions. The majority of us are average representatives of the human population, to whom “nothing human is alien,” but at the same time they do not change the world. Geniuses appear periodically (not every year and not in every locality), but they are not always immediately noticeable, because such individuals are often considered simply eccentrics. And finally (maybe not often?) among various pathological conditions there are mental illnesses that require correction and complex treatment.

Bad memory

Hypomnesia - this type is usually expressed in two words: “poor memory.”

Forgetfulness, absent-mindedness and poor memory are observed in asthenic syndrome, which, in addition to memory problems, is characterized by other symptoms:

Asthenic syndrome, as a rule, is formed by another pathology, for example:

• Arterial hypertension.
• Previous traumatic brain injury (TBI).
• Atherosclerotic process.
• The initial stage of schizophrenia.

The cause of memory and attention impairments of the hypomnesia type can be various depressive states (there are too many to count), menopausal syndrome occurring with adaptation disorder, organic brain damage (severe head injury, epilepsy, tumors). In such situations, as a rule, in addition to hypomnesia, the symptoms listed above are also present.

“I remember here, I don’t remember here”

With amnesia, not the entire memory is lost, but individual fragments of it. As an example of this type of amnesia, I would like to recall the film by Alexander Sery “Gentlemen of Fortune” - “Here I remember - here I don’t remember.”

However, not all amnesia looks like in the famous movie; there are more serious cases when memory is lost significantly and for a long time or forever, therefore among such memory disorders (amnesia) there are several types:

1. Dissociative amnesia, the events that caused the event are erased from memory. psychological trauma. Severe stress causes a defensive reaction in the body, and it tries to hide away situations that a person cannot survive on his own. These events can only be retrieved from the depths of the unconscious using special methods (hypnosis);
2. Retrograde amnesia - a person forgets what happened before the injury (most often this happens after a head injury) - the patient came to his senses, but does not remember who he is and what happened to him;
3. Anterograde amnesia - before the injury (TBI or a severe psychotraumatic situation) everything is remembered, but after the injury - failure;
4. Fixation amnesia – poor memory for current events (a person forgets what happened today);
5. Total amnesia - all information leaves memory, including information about one’s own “I”.

A special type of memory loss that cannot be overcome is progressive amnesia, which is a sequential loss of memory from the present to the past. The cause of memory destruction in such cases is organic atrophy of the brain, which occurs in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Such patients poorly reproduce traces of memory (speech disorders), for example, they forget the names of household objects that they use every day (a plate, a chair, a clock), but at the same time they know what they are intended for (amnestic aphasia). In other cases, the patient simply does not recognize the thing (sensory aphasia) or does not know what it is for (semantic aphasia). One should not, however, confuse the habits of “zealous” owners to find a use for everything that is in the house, even if it is intended for completely different purposes (from an old kitchen clock in the form of a plate, you can make a beautiful dish or stand).

You have to invent something like this!

Paramnesia (distortion of memories) is also classified as a memory disorder, and among them the following types are distinguished:

• Confabulation, in which fragments of one’s own memory disappear, and their place is taken by stories invented by the patient and presented to him “in all seriousness,” since he himself believes in what he is talking about. Patients talk about their exploits, unprecedented achievements in life and work, and even sometimes about crimes.
• Pseudo-reminiscence is the replacement of one memory with another event that actually took place in the patient’s life, only at a completely different time and under different circumstances (Korsakov’s syndrome).
• Cryptomnesia, when patients, having received information from various sources (books, movies, stories of other people), pass it off as events they themselves experienced. In a word, patients, due to pathological changes, engage in involuntary plagiarism, which is characteristic of delusional ideas encountered in organic disorders.
• Echonesia - a person feels (quite sincerely) that this event has already happened to him (or saw it in a dream?). Of course, similar thoughts sometimes visit a healthy person, but the difference is that patients attach special significance to such phenomena (“get hung up”), while healthy people simply quickly forget about it.
• Polympsest - this symptom exists in two variants: short-term memory loss associated with pathological alcohol intoxication(episodes of the past day are confused with long-past events), and the combination of two different events of the same period of time, in the end, the patient himself does not know what really happened.

As a rule, these symptoms in pathological conditions are accompanied by others clinical manifestations, therefore, if you notice signs of “déjà vu”, there is no need to rush to make a diagnosis - this also happens in healthy people.

Decreased concentration affects memory

Impaired memory and attention, loss of the ability to focus on specific objects include the following pathological conditions:

1. Instability of attention - a person is constantly distracted, jumps from one object to another (disinhibition syndrome in children, hypomania, hebephrenia - a mental disorder that develops as a form of schizophrenia in adolescence);
2. Rigidity (slowness of switching) from one topic to another - this symptom is very characteristic of epilepsy (those who communicate with such people know that the patient is constantly “stuck”, which makes it difficult to conduct a dialogue);
3. Insufficient concentration of attention - they say about such people: “That absent-minded person from Basseynaya Street!” That is, absent-mindedness and poor memory in such cases are often perceived as features of temperament and behavior, which, in principle, is often true.

Undoubtedly, a decrease in concentration, in particular, will negatively affect the entire process of memorizing and storing information, that is, on the state of memory in general.

Children forget faster

As for children, all these gross, permanent memory impairments, characteristic of adults and especially the elderly, are very rarely observed in childhood. Memory problems that arise due to congenital characteristics require correction and, with a skillful approach (as far as possible), may recede a little. There are many cases where the efforts of parents and teachers literally worked wonders for Down syndrome and other types of congenital mental retardation, but here the approach is individual and dependent on various circumstances.

It’s another matter if the baby was born healthy, and the problems appeared as a result of the troubles suffered. So you can expect a child to have a slightly different reaction to different situations:

• Amnesia in children in most cases is manifested by memory lapses in relation to individual memories of episodes that took place during the period of clouding of consciousness associated with unpleasant events (poisoning, coma, trauma) - it is not for nothing that they say that children quickly forget;
• Alcoholization in adolescence also does not proceed in the same way as in adults - the absence of memories (polympsests) for events that occur during intoxication appears already in the first stages of drunkenness, without waiting for a diagnosis (alcoholism);
• Retrograde amnesia in children, as a rule, affects a short period of time before injury or illness, and its severity is not as clear as in adults, that is, memory loss in a child cannot always be noticed.

Most often, children and adolescents experience memory impairment of the dysmnesia type, which is manifested by a weakening of the ability to remember, store (retention) and reproduce (reproduction) received information. Disorders of this type are more noticeable in school-age children, as they affect school performance, adaptation in a team, and behavior in everyday life.

For children attending nurseries preschool institutions, symptoms of dysmnesia are problems with memorizing rhymes and songs, children cannot participate in children's matinees and holidays. Despite the fact that kindergarten The baby visits constantly, every time he comes there, he cannot independently find his locker to change clothes; among other items (toys, clothes, a towel) he has difficulty finding his own. Dysmnestic disorders are also noticeable in the home environment: the child cannot tell what happened in the garden, forgets the names of other children, each time he perceives fairy tales read many times as if he was hearing them for the first time, does not remember the names of the main characters.

Transient disturbances of memory and attention, along with fatigue, drowsiness and all sorts of autonomic disorders, are often observed in schoolchildren with cerebrasthenic syndrome of various etiologies.

Before treatment

Before you begin to treat the symptoms of memory impairment, you need to make a correct diagnosis and find out what is causing the patient's problems. To do this, you need to get more information about his health:

1. What diseases does he suffer from? It may be possible to trace the connection between the existing pathology (or suffered in the past) with the deterioration of intellectual abilities;
2. Does he have a pathology that directly leads to memory impairment: dementia, cerebral vascular insufficiency, TBI (history), chronic alcoholism, drug disorders?
3. What medications is the patient taking and is memory impairment associated with the use of medications? Certain groups of pharmaceuticals, for example, benzodiazepines including side effects have similar types of violations, which, however, are reversible.

In addition, during the diagnostic search, a biochemical blood test can be very useful, allowing one to identify metabolic disorders, hormonal imbalances, and deficiencies of microelements and vitamins.

In most cases, when searching for the causes of memory loss, they resort to neuroimaging methods (CT, MRI, EEG, PET, etc.), which help to detect a brain tumor or hydrocephalus and, at the same time, differentiate vascular lesions of the brain from degenerative ones.

There is a need for neuroimaging methods also because memory impairment at first may be the only symptom of a serious pathology. Unfortunately, the greatest difficulties in diagnosis are presented by depressive conditions, which in other cases force one to prescribe a trial antidepressant treatment (to find out whether there is depression or not).

Treatment and correction

The normal aging process itself involves a slight decrease in intellectual abilities: forgetfulness appears, memorization is not so easy, concentration of attention decreases, especially if the neck is “pinched” or blood pressure rises, however, such symptoms do not significantly affect the quality of life and behavior at home . Older people who adequately assess their age learn to remind themselves (and quickly remember) about current affairs.

In addition, many people do not neglect treatment with pharmaceuticals to improve memory.

There are now a number of drugs that can improve brain function and even help with tasks that require significant intellectual effort. First of all, these are nootropics (piracetam, fezam, vinpocetine, cerebrolysin, cinnarizine, etc.).

Nootropics are indicated for older people who have certain age-related problems that are not yet noticeable to others. Drugs in this group are suitable for improving memory in cases of impaired cerebral circulation caused by other pathological conditions of the brain and vascular system. By the way, many of these drugs are successfully used in pediatric practice.

However, nootropics are a symptomatic treatment, and to get the desired effect you need to strive for etiotropic treatment.

As for Alzheimer's disease, tumors, and mental disorders, the approach to treatment should be very specific - depending on the pathological changes and the reasons that led to them. There is no single recipe for all cases, so there is nothing to advise patients. You just need to contact a doctor, who, perhaps, before prescribing drugs to improve memory, will send you for additional examination.

Correction of mental disorders is also difficult in adults. Patients with poor memory, under the supervision of an instructor, memorize poetry, solve crosswords, practice solving logical problems, but the training, while bringing some success (the severity of mnestic disorders seems to have decreased), still does not produce particularly significant results.

Correction of memory and attention in children, in addition to treatment with various groups of pharmaceutical drugs, includes classes with a psychologist, exercises for memory development (poems, drawings, tasks). Of course, the child’s psyche is more mobile and better amenable to correction, unlike the adult psyche. Children have the prospect of progressive development, while older people only experience the opposite effect.

What are the types of speech disorders? Main symptoms and causes of the disease

Speech disorders are quite common in the modern world, both in adults and children. For the correct functioning of speech, in addition to the absence of problems in the vocal apparatus itself, the coordinated work of visual and auditory analyzers, the brain and other parts of the nervous system is necessary.

A speech disorder is a disorder of speech skills that can be caused by various reasons. Let's look at the most common diseases:

Stuttering

Stuttering, or logoneurosis, is one of the most common deviations. This disorder is expressed in the periodic repetition of individual syllables or sounds during a conversation. In addition, convulsive pauses may occur in a person’s speech.

There are several types of stuttering:

• Tonic appearance – frequent stops in speech and prolongation of words.
• Clonic - repetition of syllables and sounds.

Stuttering can be triggered and aggravated by stress, emotional situations and shocks, such as speaking in front of a large number of people.

Logoneurosis occurs in adults and children. The causes of its occurrence may be neurological and genetic factors. With timely diagnosis and initiation of treatment, it is possible to completely get rid of this problem. There are many treatment methods - both medical (physiotherapeutic, speech therapy, medication, psychotherapeutic) and traditional medicine.

Dysarthria

A disease characterized by slurred speech and problems articulating sounds. Appears due to disorders in the central nervous system.

One of characteristic features This disease can be called reduced mobility of the speech apparatus - lips, tongue, soft palate, which complicates articulation and is due to insufficient innervation of the speech apparatus (the presence of nerve endings in tissues and organs, which ensures communication with the central nervous system).

• Erased dysarthria is not a very pronounced disease. The person does not have problems with hearing and speech apparatus, but has difficulties in sound pronunciation.
• Severe dysarthria - characterized by incomprehensible, slurred speech, disturbances in intonation, breathing, and voice.
• Anarthria is a form of disease in which a person is unable to speak clearly.

This disorder requires complex treatment: speech therapy correction, drug intervention, physical therapy.

Dislalia

Tongue-tied is a disease in which a person pronounces certain sounds incorrectly, misses them, or replaces them with others. This disorder usually occurs in people with normal hearing and innervation of the articulatory apparatus. Typically, treatment is carried out with speech therapy intervention.

This is one of the most common speech disorders, which is found in about 25% of preschool children. With timely diagnosis, the disorder can be corrected quite successfully. Preschool children perceive correction much more easily than schoolchildren.

Oligophasia

A condition that often occurs in people who have had an epileptic seizure. Characterized by poor vocabulary or simplified sentence construction.

Oligophasia can be:

• Temporary – acute oligophasia caused by an epileptic seizure;
• Progressive - interictal oligophasia, which occurs with the development of epileptic dementia.

The disease can also occur with disorders in the frontal lobe of the brain and some mental disorders.

Aphasia

A speech disorder in which a person cannot understand someone else’s speech and express his own thoughts using words and phrases. The disorder occurs when the centers responsible for speech are damaged in the cerebral cortex, namely, in the dominant hemisphere.

The cause of the disease can be:

• cerebral hemorrhage;
• abscess;
• traumatic brain injury;
• thrombosis of cerebral vessels.

There are several categories of this violation:

• Motor aphasia – a person is unable to pronounce words, but can make sounds and understand someone else’s speech.
• Sensory aphasia - a person can speak, but cannot understand someone else's speech.
• Semantic aphasia – a person’s speech is not impaired and he is able to hear, but cannot understand the semantic relationships between words.
• Amnestic aphasia is a disease in which a person forgets the name of an object, but is able to describe its function and purpose.
• Total aphasia - a person is unable to speak, write, read or understand the speech of another.

Since aphasia is not a mental disorder, to treat it it is necessary to eliminate the cause of the disease.

Akatophasia

A speech disorder, which is characterized by the replacement of necessary words with words that are similar in sound, but not suitable in meaning.

Schizophasia

A psychiatric speech disorder characterized by speech fragmentation and incorrect semantic structure of speech. A person is able to form phrases, but his speech does not make any sense, it is nonsense. This disorder is most common in patients with schizophrenia.

Paraphasia

A speech disorder in which a person confuses individual letters or words and replaces them with the wrong ones.

There are two types of violation:

• Verbal - replacing words that are similar in meaning.
• Literal – caused by sensory or motor speech problems.

Expressive language disorder

A developmental disorder in children in which there are deficiencies in the use of expressive means speech. At the same time, children are able to express thoughts and understand the meaning of someone else's speech.

Symptoms of this disorder also include:

• small vocabulary;
• grammatical errors - incorrect use of declensions and cases;
• low speech activity.

This disorder can be transmitted at the genetic level, and is more common in men. Diagnosed during examination by a speech therapist, psychologist or neurologist. For treatment, psychotherapeutic methods are mainly used; in some situations, drug treatment is prescribed.

Logoclony

A disease expressed in the periodic repetition of syllables or individual words.

This disorder is provoked by problems with the contraction of muscles that are involved in the speech process. Muscle spasms are repeated one after another due to deviations in the rhythm of contractions. This disease can accompany Alzheimer's disease, progressive paralysis, and encephalitis.

Most speech disorders can be corrected and treated if detected early. Be attentive to your health and contact a specialist if you notice any deviations.