10.4

• Rabies, which is usually transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal, is a well-known example of a virus that has a particular affinity for the nervous system.
• The mumps and herpes viruses are common examples of viruses that can attack the nervous system but have no special affinity for it.
• Rabies have one redeeming feature, what is this?

  It does not usually attack the brain for at least a month after it has been contracted, thus allowing time for preventive vaccination.
• Toxic chemicals —chemicals that can enter general circulation from the gastrointestinal tract, from the lungs, or through the skin. For example, heavy metals such as mercury and lead.
• Toxic chemicals—chemicals that can enter general circulation from the gastrointestinal tract, from the lungs, or through the skin. For example, heavy metals such as mercury and lead
• Toxic chemicals—chemicals that can enter general circulation from the gastrointestinal tract, from the lungs, or through the skin. For example, heavy metals such as mercury and lead can accumulate in the brain and permanently damage it, producing a toxic psychosis.
• In 18th- and 19th-century England, hat makers commonly developed toxic psychosis from the mercury employed in the preparation of the felt used to make hats.


  Toxic psychosis were observed in some people in England—primarily the poor — who steeped their tea in cracked ceramic pots with lead cores.
• True or False: The very drugs used to treat neurological or psychiatric disorders prove to be toxic.

  True
• About 5% schizophrenic patients who were given antipsychotic drugs developed a motor disorder called tardive dyskinesia.
• Its primary symptoms are involuntary smacking and sucking movements of the lips, thrusting and rolling of the tongue, lateral jaw movements, and puffing of the cheeks.

  tardive dyskinesia
• True or False: Some neurotoxins are endogenous.

  True
• Examples are antibodies produced by the patient’s own body that attacks one nervous systems

  Endogenous Neurotoxins
• True or False: Excessive release of certain neurotransmitters can also damage the brain.

  True
• True or False: Some neuropsychological diseases of genetic origin are caused by abnormal dominant genes that are passed from parent to offspring.

  False, Recessive genes
• If an individual carries a dominant dominant genes that disturb neuropsychological function; gene is eliminated from gene pool : If an individual carries a one abnormal recessive gene do not develop the disorder; it is passed to the future generation.
• If an individual carries a dominant dominant genes that disturb neuropsychological function; gene is eliminated from gene pool : If an individual carries a one abnormal recessive gene do not develop the disorder; it is passed to the future generation.
• The genetic accident associated with Down syndrome occurs in the mother during ovulation, when an extra chromosome 21 is created in the egg
• The consequences of this condition tend to be characteristic disfigurement, intellectual disability, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (a type of dementia), and other troublesome medical complications.

  Trisomy 21
• Apoptosis of a neuron proceeds gradually, starting with shrinkage of the cell body. Then, as parts of the neuron die, the resulting debris is packaged in vesicles—a process known as blebbing.
• True or False: All people who suffer from seizures are considered to have epilepsy.

  False