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Foreword - 2020 - Handbook of Clinical Neurology

This foreword introduces two volumes on neurocognitive development. Volume 1 covers normative development, including the development and plasticity of the brain, functional neurodevelopment, and etiologies of disorders. Volume 2 addresses specific neurodevelopmental disorders, complex disorders like autism and epilepsy, assessment techniques, and rehabilitation. The volumes were edited by four experts and aim to provide clinicians a reference on features and management of neurocognitive issues, and researchers foundations for new approaches. The foreword praises the editors and authors for completing the extensive work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
138 views2 pages

Foreword - 2020 - Handbook of Clinical Neurology

This foreword introduces two volumes on neurocognitive development. Volume 1 covers normative development, including the development and plasticity of the brain, functional neurodevelopment, and etiologies of disorders. Volume 2 addresses specific neurodevelopmental disorders, complex disorders like autism and epilepsy, assessment techniques, and rehabilitation. The volumes were edited by four experts and aim to provide clinicians a reference on features and management of neurocognitive issues, and researchers foundations for new approaches. The foreword praises the editors and authors for completing the extensive work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Foreword

In daily life, we constantly use language, overt or covert, various types of memories, spatial orientation, and other
cognitive functions, usually without even thinking about them. The same is true for children’s cognitive development.
All of these cognitive functions are taken for granted and only when something goes wrong do we become aware of
their complexity. In an earlier volume of the Handbook of Clinical Neurology edited by Olivier Dulac (Paris), Maryse
Lassonde (Montreal), and Harvey Sarnat (Calgary), a section of Volume 111 on pediatric neurology was dedicated to
developmental abnormalities. Even though that section was prepared less than a decade ago, new advances in our
approach to children with neurodevelopmental delays or disabilities have occurred, based on developments in genetics,
neuroimaging, cognitive sciences, and artificial intelligence. All these amply justify a new title, “Neurocognitive
Development,” which is now covered in two volumes.
The first volume, “Normative Development,” includes five sections. The introductory section includes classifica-
tion as well as historical and ethical considerations. The second and third sections are dedicated to development,
plasticity, and vulnerability of the developing brain. This is followed by a section on the neuroscientific basis of typical
functional neurodevelopment from intellectual abilities to social cognition, and includes a chapter discussing the role
of the cerebellum in neuropsychologic functioning. The final section of the volume deals with the etiologies
of neurodevelopmental disorders including genetic mechanisms, the effect of sex, and the impact of prematurity on
development, as well as a chapter dedicated to the effect of pregnancy and fetal risks.
The second volume, “Disorders and Disabilities,” first deals with specific neurodevelopmental disorders including
disorders of coordination, language, attention, reading, memory, and nonverbal dysfunction. The next section, on
complex neurodevelopmental disorders, deals with intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, epilepsy, and
multidimensional impairment. The following section covers assessment, including neurologic, psychiatric, and
neuropsychologic assessment, and investigative neurophysiologic techniques, as well as structural and functional
neuroimaging. The final section of the volume deals with rehabilitation and long-term outcome including education
and quality-of-life issues. This is rightly recognized as a key outcome of chronic health conditions, and its assessment is
recommended for both clinical care and clinical trials.
For this massive undertaking, we have had the good fortune of having four outstanding and experienced volume
editors: Anne Gallagher, PhD, Department of Psychology, Universite de Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Christine Bulteau,
MD, PhD, Institute of Psychology, Sorbonne, and Pediatric Neurosurgery Department, Rothschild Foundation
Hospital, Paris, France; David Cohen, MD, PhD, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie and Pitie-Salp^etrière, Paris, France;
and Jacques L. Michaud, MD, CHU Sainte-Justine, and Faculty of Medicine, Universite de Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
As series editors, we reviewed all the chapters in the volume and made suggestions for improvement, but we are
delighted that the volume editors and chapter authors produced such scholarly and comprehensive accounts of
different aspects of neurocognitive development. They deserve even more credit as the chapters were written while
the world was gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, they were able to include nearly all the material that
needed to be covered. As a result, we hope that the volume will appeal to clinicians and neuroscientists alike. Our goal
was to provide clinicians with a state-of-the-art reference that summarizes the clinical features and management of the
many neurologic manifestations of neurocognitive development. We also hoped to provide basic researchers with the
foundations for new approaches to the study of the complex issues involved.
In addition to the print version, the volumes are also available electronically on Elsevier’s Science Direct website.
Indeed, all of the volumes in the present series of the Handbook are available electronically on this website. This should
make them even more accessible to readers and facilitate searches for specific information.
viii FOREWORD
As always, it is a pleasure to thank Elsevier, our publisher, and in particular Michael Parkinson in Scotland, Nikki
Levy and Kristi Anderson in San Diego, and Punithavathy Govindaradjane at Elsevier Global Book Production in
Chennai, for their assistance in the development and production of these two volumes of the Handbook of Clinical
Neurology.
Michael J. Aminoff
François Boller
Dick F. Swaab

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