The Neuropsychology of Parkinsons-Disease

This article discusses the neuropsychological profile of Parkinsons disease from the perspective of cognitive theory, anatomical organization, and unit recording data. Despite the point of origin, methodologically controlled studies are converging to support the position that patients with this disorder suffer selective impairment in the acquisition of novel tasks which rely on internal (subjective) processing for the efficient establishment of new cognitive ′habits." The roles of attention and learning as well as of unit activity within the relevant networks are considered. Also included are recent but important concepts from personality theory which potentially enhance understanding of the neuropsychology of Parkinsons disease.     

The Future of Neuropsychology in Medical Specialties

Although neuropsychology continues to grow as a valued service in most medical specialties, because of its multiple uses with diverse populations, it is necessary to evaluate the specialty critically in order to ensure continued future success. This article reviews areas in which neuropsychology is most firmly established, potential growth areas, and likely obstacles to success in the future. Suggestions are provided for ways in which neuropsychology can be improved/adapted in clinical, business, research, and training areas. On sabattical at Bebek University, Instanbul, Turkey     

The Implications of Brain Connectivity in the Neuropsychology of Autism

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that has been associated with atypical brain functioning. Functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) studies examining neural networks in autism have seen an exponential rise over the last decade. Such investigations have led to the characterization of autism as a distributed neural systems disorder. Studies have found widespread cortical underconnectivity, local overconnectivity, and mixed results suggesting disrupted brain connectivity as a potential neural signature of autism. In this review, we summarize the findings of previous fcMRI studies in autism with a detailed examination of their methodology, in order to better understand its potential and to delineate the pitfalls. We also address how a multimodal neuroimaging approach (incorporating different measures of brain connectivity) may help characterize the complex neurobiology of autism at a global level. Finally, we also address the potential of neuroimaging-based markers in assisting neuropsychological assessment of autism. The quest for a neural marker for autism is still ongoing, yet new findings suggest that aberrant brain connectivity may be a promising candidate.     

The Clinical Neuropsychology of Attention in School-Aged Children

100 children from the north-east of England, aged between 7 and 13 years of age, completed an assessment of intellectual ability and an attention battery based on the work of Mirsky, Anthony, Duncan, Ahearn, & Kellam (1991). Factor analysis was generally supportive of the Mirsky et al. (1991) model. Replication of the adult model produced the same four factors: sustain, encode, focus-execute and shift. Replication of the child model produced a three-factor model in which the encode and focus-execute factors combined. An extended model resulted in the introduction of a new factor labelled errors of processing. The scores on attention factors were found to have a reasonable level of independence from intellectual ability.     

Neuropsychology in Denmark

The origins and development of neuropsychology in Denmark are briefly overviewed, as are the education and training opportunities for Danish neuropsychologists. Areas of application and research are presented, and the role of the rehabilitation of brain injury is emphasized, with specific reference being made to the Center for the Rehabilitation of Brain Injury at Copenhagen University, wherein the rehabilitation program and pertinent research ensuing from the center is presented. Future trends in Danish neuropsychology are also considered.     

Neuropsychology in France

The main steps in the development of neuropsychology in France are briefly reviewed, from the early contribution of Paul Broca (1861) up until the early 1990s. The current epistemological and institutional crises is analyzed with respect to some general factors inherent to the domain (e.g., disputes between the proponents of the psychological and biological dimensions) and to particular factors related to the French situation (e.g., retirement of prominent neuropsychologists). As regards clinical practice and research activities, the future will probably show some fractionation of goals and techniques prior to new synthesis.Died suddenly in March 1991.     

Luria in Uzbekistan: The Vicissitudes of Cross-Cultural Neuropsychology

If the material conditions of culture shape cognitive structures, as Luria and Vygotsky argued, the extraordinarily deep and rapid restructuring of historical forms (Luria, 1971, 265) in the Soviet Republics that followed the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 provided a natural laboratory to determine whether processes of modernization changed traditional ways of thinking. This was the purpose of Luria's 1931 expedition to the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan in central Asia. Luria's initial reports attracted vitriolic criticism because he had allegedly belittled primitive Uzbeki culture. The lasting importance of the Uzbek expedition is its emphasis on culture as a determinant of cognitive processes that remains valid to the present: in 1984, Gilbert replicated Luria's field studies in South Africa with near-identical results. Yet current neuropsychology has been slow to recognize the need for culturally sensitive assessment.     

Neuropsychology and the emotional component of religion

Religiosity may be seen as both a rational and an emotional phenomenon. Recent technological advances have allowed neuroscientists to relate emotional perception and expression to distinct neurological substrates. When these are rendered dysfunctional through a stroke or other brain injury or disease, the victim's religiosity may change in specific ways. These changes are detailed through case study material in this article. Factors involved in recovery are delineated and guidelines for pastoral care of these patient/parishioners are offered.     

The Neuropsychology of HIV/AIDS in Older Adults

Highly active antiretroviral therapy is allowing increasing numbers of adults to age with HIV. The neuropsychological effects of aging with HIV are reviewed through three types of studies. First, the separate effects of HIV and aging on cognition are examined in studies that compare younger adults with HIV with neurologically normal older adults. Second, studies examine the impact of aging within samples of adults with HIV only. Third, providing the most critical evidence, are studies that assess cognition in younger and older adults with HIV relative to younger and older adults without HIV. In general research findings are inconclusive. Large individual differences among older adults with HIV as well as co-factors (APOE4 and detectable viral load) may account for inconsistent findings in the literature. A subgroup of older adults with HIV may be at greater risk for cognitive impairment, especially in attention functioning.     

Measurement in Cross-Cultural Neuropsychology

The measurement of cognitive abilities across diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic groups has a contentious history, with broad political, legal, economic, and ethical repercussions. Advances in psychometric methods and converging scientific ideas about genetic variation afford new tools and theoretical contexts to move beyond the reflective analysis of between-group test score discrepancies. Neuropsychology is poised to benefit from these advances to cultivate a richer understanding of the factors that underlie cognitive test score disparities. To this end, the present article considers several topics relevant to the measurement of cognitive abilities across groups from diverse ancestral origins, including fairness and bias, equivalence, diagnostic validity, item response theory, and differential item functioning.     

Neuropsychology and the cognitive nature of the emotions

Expectancies of success are widely thought to influence people's emotional reactions to performance outcomes: The lower one's expectancies, the more delighted one should be following success and the less disappointed one should be following failure. Although this proposition has been accepted almost as a truism, a review of the literature reveals that it has not been tested adequately. In this paper, we report two tests of this hypothesis, finding little evidence that low expectancies are beneficial. The discussion considers the implications of these findings for theories of emotion and the costs and benefits of positive thinking.     

Neuropsychology of Swedenborg's visions.

In 1744, the 56-yr.-old scientist Emanuel Swedenborg underwent a transformative event that could be characterized as convulsive. He subsequently became a visionary and spent the remaining 28 years of his life exploring the spirit world and describing his experiences in an extensive corpus of writings. Retrospective analysis of his visions and trance states indicates signs and symptoms consistent with a vascular anomaly in the posterior area of the left cerebral hemisphere and associated effects due to partial seizures with complex symptomatology. Swedenborg's writings have formed the basis of a church that remains active to this day. His visionary experiences can be interpreted as an instance of neuropsychological symptomatology, under the shaping influence of a powerful intellect, contributing to the formation of an historically significant religious movement. The term neuropathography is proposed for a new genre of neuropsychological case study in which the emphasis on brain-related symptomatology is balanced by attention to autobiographical and broad cultural factors.     

The Neuropsychology of Aesthetic, Spiritual, and Mystical States

An analysis of the underlying neurophysiology of aesthetics and religiousexperience allows for the development of an Aesthetic-Religious Continuum. This continuumpertains to the variety of creative and spiritual experiences available to human beings. This mayalso lead to an understanding of the neurophysiological mechanism underlying both"positive" and "negative" aesthetics. An analysis of this continuumallows for the ability to understand the neurophenomenological aspects of a variety of humanexperiences ranging from relatively simple aesthetic experiences to profound spiritual and unitarystates such as those obtained during meditation. However, it may be possible through aneuropsychological analysis to determine the similarities that exist across such experiences.Thus, certain parts of the brain may be functioning in similar ways during different experiences.It may be the case that the specific neuropsychological components of a given experience maydepend on the strength of the affectual response of the person and the ability to mark suchexperiences as significant. Further, even though similar structures may be functioning duringdifferent experiences, their inhibitory and excitatory interactions may be different. Finally, byconsidering the Aesthetic-Religious Continuum, we may eventually arrive at a betterunderstanding of how we experience and define reality.     

Russian Neuropsychology After Luria

It is now more than 20 years after Luria's death in 1977. His collaborators, disciples, and followers both in Russia and abroad continue to further develop his work. The development of Russian neuropsychology reflects the universal tendency to replace static neuropsychology, which relates individuals' behavior to fixed cerebral lesions, with dynamic neuropsychology, which analyzes the dynamics of brain-behavior interaction. Three types of Russian studies illustrate the latter approach: (1) neuropsychological follow-up of different nosological groups of patients in the process of medical or psychological treatment, (2) studies of cognitive evolution (developmental neuropsychology), and (3) studies of cognitive involution (neurogeriatrics). All studies focus on cortico-subcortical and interhemispheric relationships. Another change in modern Russian neuropsychology consists of combining the qualitative approach with the quantitative one, but the system of rating is based, following Luria's tradition, on the psychological evaluation of each task's structure and the qualitative analysis of the patients' performance and possibilities for its correction. Hence, Luria's creative and comprehensive approach stimulates the further development of neuropsychology in Russia.