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Lec 1 Intro

Neuropsychology studies how the brain and nervous system influence cognition and behavior. It examines how brain injuries or illnesses affect functions like attention, language, and memory. Neuropsychology has two main branches - clinical neuropsychology which deals with patients with brain lesions, and experimental neuropsychology which studies cognition in healthy subjects using laboratory tests.

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60 views

Lec 1 Intro

Neuropsychology studies how the brain and nervous system influence cognition and behavior. It examines how brain injuries or illnesses affect functions like attention, language, and memory. Neuropsychology has two main branches - clinical neuropsychology which deals with patients with brain lesions, and experimental neuropsychology which studies cognition in healthy subjects using laboratory tests.

Uploaded by

mishal.sarosh75
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Neuropsychology

SADAF REHMAN
SENIOR LECTURER
P H . D . C P. (C), M S C P.
WHAT IS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY?
Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology in which we study how the brain and
the rest of the nervous system influence a person's cognition and behaviors.
Neuropsychologists focus on how injuries or illnesses of the brain affect
cognitive functions and behaviors.
Neuropsychology seeks to understand the relationship between the brain and
behavior, that is, it attempts to explain the way in which the activity of the brain
is expressed in observable behavior.
It is both an experimental and clinical field of psychology that aims to
understand how behavior and cognition are influenced by brain functioning and
is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral and cognitive effects
of neurological disorders.
Difference between Neuropsychology
and Clinical Psychology
In Neuropsychology we study brain's cognitive functions, such as attention,
language, and memory.

Clinical Psychology focuses on behaviors and emotions and therapy for related
concerns.
Difference between Neuropsychologist
and Clinical Psychologist
A neuropsychologist is interested in the brain's cognitive functions, such as
attention, language, and memory.
This is different from a clinical psychologist, who mainly focuses on behaviors
and emotions and therapy for related concerns
Branches of Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology is often divided into two main areas: clinical
neuropsychology and experimental neuropsychology. The distinction
is principally between clinical studies, on brain-injured subjects, and
experimental studies, on normal subjects
Clinical neuropsychology
Clinical neuropsychology deals with patients who have lesions of the brain.
These lesions may be the effects of disease or tumors, may result from physical
damage or trauma to the brain, or be the result of other biochemical changes,
perhaps caused by toxic substances.
Trauma may be accidental, caused by wounds or collisions; it may result from
some failure in the vascular system supplying blood to the brain; or it may be the
intended result of neurosurgical intervention to correct some neurological
problem.
Clinical neuropsychology
The clinical neuropsychologist measures deficits in intelligence, personality, and sensory–motor
functions by specialized testing procedures, and relates the results to the particular areas of the
brain that have been affected.
The damaged areas may be clearly circumscribed and limited in extent, particularly in the case
of surgical lesions (when an accurate description of the parts of the brain that have been removed
can be obtained), or may be diffuse, affecting cells throughout much of the brain, as is the case
with certain cerebral diseases.
Clinical neuropsychologists employ these measurements not only in the scientific investigation
of brain–behavior relationships, but also in the practical clinical work of aiding diagnosis of brain
lesions and rehabilitating brain-injured patients.
Experimental neuropsychology
Experimental neuropsychology work with normal subjects with intact brains. This is the most
recent area of neuropsychology to develop and has grown rapidly since the 1960s, with the
invention of a variety of techniques that can be employed in the laboratory to study higher
functions in the brain. There are close links between experimental neuropsychology and general
experimental and cognitive psychology, and the laboratory methods employed in these three
areas have strong similarities. Subjects are generally required to undertake performance tasks
while their accuracy or speed of response is recorded, from which inferences about brain
organization can be made. Associated variables, including psychophysiological or
electrophysiological variables, may also be recorded.

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