Summary of the lectures and book for the course neuropsychology. I have made a summary using the important key points that were given at the end of the lectures. I will update the document weekly, so you will have enough time to study the document before the exam :)!!!
Test Bank for Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology 8th Edition By Bryan Kolb, Ian Whishaw All Chapter | Complete Guide | Grade A+.
Test Bank for Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology 8th Edition By Bryan Kolb, Ian Whishaw All Chapter | Complete Guide | Grade A+.
Test Bank for Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology 8th Edition By Bryan Kolb, Ian Whishaw All Chapter | Complete A+ Guide
All for this textbook (22)
Written for
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
Biomedical Sciences
Neuropsychology
All documents for this subject (2)
Seller
Follow
Xjoelleboone
Reviews received
Content preview
The neuropsychologist
A neuropsychologist is a clinician and/or scientist who uses neurology, neuroscience, and psychology to
understand how behaviors correlate with brain function. To asses ‘normal’ and ‘impaired’ cognitive, social,
physical, and emotional functioning. Neuropsychology is usually clinical in nature.
Donald Hebb
Donald Hebb is considered the father of neuropsychology:
à Hebbian theory: neural pathways develop based on experiences; as pathways are used more, they
become faster and stronger.
Early neuropsychology was closely linked to brain injury and dementia research and diagnosis. Modern
neuropsychology includes a variety of disorders.
How to conduct a neurological examination
1. Patient’s history:
a. The neurologist collects information about the patient’s background, especially history of
disease, accidents, and the occurrence of symptoms.
b. Family history à some diseases have a high familial incidence
2. State of awareness
a. Alert, drowsy, stupor, confused
b. Speech abnormalities, facial asymmetries, body posture
c. Emotions (agitated, anxious, depressed, apathetic, restless)
3. Physical examination
a. Blood pressure, brain imaging, reflexes, pain, muscle movement, smell
4. Disorders
a. Strokes, injuries, and lesions may show asymmetry, loss of function
b. Parkinson’s may show loss of smell and motor changes
c. Dementia may show memory loss, disorientation, or agitation
à biopsychosocial model of neuropsychological assessments
- Neuropsychological assessment: combines many tests depending on patient’s symptoms. May
include IQ, cognitive, and psychometric tests
- Biopsychosocial model: social support networks influence outcomes, as well as patients’ sense of
wellbeing. Sometimes there is a mismatch between the patients’ needs and their social network or
environment that can add stress which may impair healing.
The biopsychosocial model changed neuropsychology, as you need biological, social, and psychological
circumstances to have good mental health. This perspective helped lead to other social-clinical models:
- Part of our social well-being is our cultural fit
- Not all symptoms are symptoms: certain beliefs are cultural, sometimes even hallucinations are
considered culturally appropriate
- Cultural formulation interview: used to determine whether something is pathological
Change as an assumption
Plasticity, flexibility, and adaptability are fundamental properties of the brain. These are all forms of change.
Change is an assumption of neuropsychology because without change there would be no rehabilitation, and
without this therapies would not work.
1
, How brain lesions led to modern understanding of brain function
and organization
Broca’s aphasia
Loss of grammatical structure, and difficulty forming words or sentences. Can be noticed in the clinic due to
brain lesions in frontal lobe. Often patients also have right-side weakness or paralysis due to lesion’s impact
on motor function.
Speech is hard to produce but usually not impossible. Other language functions, like understanding speech
and motor movements, as well as production of familiar songs, often remain intact.
Brain lesions
A brain lesion is an area of brain damage, which can result from a stroke, loss of blood flow, tumor, injury, etc.
It can be seen in a MRI scan as a white blob, due to reduced blood flow. Clinical cases of brain lesions led to
discovery that certain types of damage was consistent with certain types of symptoms:
- Localization: damage in a certain part of the brain à concluded that some brain functions were
anatomically located
- Lateralization: damage on a certain side of the brain à concluded that some functions were usually
on a specific side of the brain
- Distribution of function: lost functions are sometimes rehabilitated à concluded that other parts of
the brain can compensate
- Hierarchical organization: sophistication of functions vary depending on whether a higher or lower
brain area is damaged à brain processes start with lower levels and are processed through
increasingly higher levels. Sometimes the brain can compensate with lower regions.
Wernicke’s aphasia
Word salad. No understanding of spoken or written language. Fluent and rhythmical speech with intonation,
but without meaning. It looks like they are speaking a foreign language, it is fluent but doesn’t make any
sense. They have problems with:
- Recognizing the word code
- Derive word meaning
- Convert meaning to words
Anatomy the blood supply of the brain
Anatomical terms
2
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller Xjoelleboone. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $5.43. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
