Normal thought processes. An overview.

The complexity of the neurologic mechanisms operating in normal thought processes is obvious as is their impact on the quality of human life. The efficient performance of intellectual activity, that is, thinking and reasoning, assumes an awake, alert state and encompasses the interplay of fundamental mental operations such as attention, memory, spatial orientation, language, and higher order functions of insight, calculation, and abstract reasoning. Systematic assessment of the full range of operations is required to accurately diagnose alterations in thought processes, because the identification of specific impairments may facilitate the localization of brain injury as well as focus nursing intervention.