Neuropsychology

The Cognitive and Neural Bases of Spatial Neglect

Hans-Otto Karnath, A. David Milner, Giuseppe Vallar (eds)

Spatial neglect is a disorder of space-related behaviour. It is characterized by failure to explore the side of space contralateral to a brain lesion, or to react or respond to stimuli ... More

Spatial neglect is a disorder of space-related behaviour. It is characterized by failure to explore the side of space contralateral to a brain lesion, or to react or respond to stimuli or subjects located on this side. Research on spatial neglect and related disorders has developed rapidly in recent years. These advances have been made as a result of neuropsychological studies of patients with brain damage and behavioural studies of animal models, as well as through functional neurophysiological experiments and functional neuroimaging. This book provides an overview of this wide-ranging field, providing a cohesive synthesis of the most recent observations and results. The study of spatial neglect helps us to understand normal mechanisms of directing and maintaining spatial attention and is relevant to the contemporary search for the cerebral correlates of conscious experience, voluntary action and the nature of personal identity itself. The book is divided into seven sections covering the anatomical and neurophysiological bases of the disorder, frameworks of neglect, perceptual and motor factors, the relation to attention, the cognitive processes involved, and strategies for rehabilitation. Less

Comparative Neuropsychology

A. David Milner (ed.)

This book has been prepared as a tribute to the late George Ettlinger, one of the leading figures in comparative neuropsychology research over the last forty years, and reflects research ... More

This book has been prepared as a tribute to the late George Ettlinger, one of the leading figures in comparative neuropsychology research over the last forty years, and reflects research in the many areas where Ettlinger made a particular contribution to our understanding. Taking as their starting point the assumption that the human brain shares many of its most important functional systems with its primate relatives, the chapteres take a comparative evolutionary approach to understanding human cognition and brain function. The book's fifteen chapters cover a wide range of subject areas, including memory, visual and somatosensory perception, motor control, attention, cross-modality integration, interhemispheric transmission, and behavioural intelligence. The final chapters of the book critically discuss questions basic to the comparative enterprise: whether we can in fact apply concepts derived from human cognitive psychology to primate neuropsychology, and whether there are evolutionary discontinuities in cortical brain structure among the higher primate species. Less

The Effectiveness of Rehabilitation for Cognitive Deficits

Peter W. Halligan, Derick T. Wade (eds)

Many patients with brain damage are left with a range of neuropsychological deficits that impair normal cognitive process. It is generally recognised that these less ... More

Many patients with brain damage are left with a range of neuropsychological deficits that impair normal cognitive process. It is generally recognised that these less obvious cognitive deficits (including memory, language, perception, attention, and executive disorders) militate against full recovery often to a greater extent than more traditional medical deficits (e.g. paralysis, sensory loss, etc.). Recognition of this has helped fuel the exponential growth in cognitive neuropsychology and neuroscience over the past thirty years. In turn, this theoretical approach has been used to guide and inform the development of cognitive therapies designed to remediate cognitive impairments and their functional consequences. Cognitive rehabilitation has over the last decade grown to become an established and influential therapeutic approach. There is now a considerable body of knowledge describing the principles and theoretical basis for analysing and directing treatments to selective cognitive deficits. Despite this, the clinical effectiveness and extent to which cognitive theory can inform therapeutic treatment has been questioned. It is timely, therefore, to evaluate and discuss the type and quality of evidence used in support of cognitive rehabilitation. Less

Foundations of Neuroeconomic Analysis

Paul W. Glimcher

A new academic field, neuroeconomics, has emerged at the border of the social and natural sciences. This book argues that a meaningful interdisciplinary synthesis of the study of human ... More

A new academic field, neuroeconomics, has emerged at the border of the social and natural sciences. This book argues that a meaningful interdisciplinary synthesis of the study of human and animal choice is not only desirable, but also well underway, and so it is time to develop formally a foundational approach for the field. This book does so by laying the philosophical and empirical groundwork and integrating the theory of choice and valuation with the relevant physical constraints and mechanisms. While there has been an intense debate about the value and prospects of neuroeconomics, this book argues that existing data from neuroeconomics' three parent fields—neuroscience, psychology, and economics—already specify the basic features of the primate choice mechanism at all three levels of analysis. Its central argument is that combining these three disciplines gives us enough insight to define many of the fundamental features of decision making that have previously eluded scholars working within each individual field. Less

The Handbook of Clinical Neuropsychology

John Marshall

Jennifer Gurd, Udo Kischka (eds)

The past thirty years have seen the field of clinical neuropsychology grow to become an influential discipline within mainstream clinical psychology and an established component of most ... More

The past thirty years have seen the field of clinical neuropsychology grow to become an influential discipline within mainstream clinical psychology and an established component of most professional courses. It remains one of the fastest growing specialities within mainstream clinical psychology, neurology, and the psychiatric disciplines. Updated to take account of these rapid developments, this book contains chapters that demonstrate the contribution that neuropsychological approaches can make to the assessment, diagnosis, and range of treatments for cognitive disorders following brain damage, as well as addressing the special considerations when treating the elderly. The book is divided into ten sections, covering everything from methodological and conceptual issues, functional neuroanatomy, and the historical context. Throughout, the content draws on contemporary neuroscientific techniques, focusing on the methods of functional imaging, cognitive psychology, cognitive neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, and cognitive rehabilitation. It also provides background information on laboratory and research techniques, as well as covering relevant neurology and psychiatry. Less

The Link Between Religion and Health: Psychoneuroimmunology and the Faith Factor

Harold G. Koenig, Harvey J. Cohen

This book presents new medical research establishing a connection between religion and health and examines the implications for Eastern and Western religious traditions and for society ... More

This book presents new medical research establishing a connection between religion and health and examines the implications for Eastern and Western religious traditions and for society and culture. It examines a series of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) topics that relate to religious faith and behavior. PNI studies the relationships between mental states and the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Among the issues explored are how mental states in general and belief states in particular affect physical health. The book argues that religious involvement and belief can affect certain neuroendocrine and immune mechanisms, and that these mechanisms, in turn, positively affect a wide variety of health outcomes such as susceptibility to cancer and recovery following surgery. Less

The Neuropsychology of Anxiety: An enquiry into the function of the septo-hippocampal system

Jeffrey A. Gray, Neil McNaughton

This book provides an updated theory of the nature of anxiety and the brain systems controlling anxiety, combined with a theory of hippocampal function, which was first proposed thirty ... More

This book provides an updated theory of the nature of anxiety and the brain systems controlling anxiety, combined with a theory of hippocampal function, which was first proposed thirty years ago. While remaining controversial, the core of this theory, of a ‘Behavioural Inhibition System’, has stood the test of time, with its main predictions repeatedly confirmed. Novel anti-anxiety drugs share none of the side effects or primary pharmacological actions of the classical anti-anxiety drugs on the actions of which the theory was based; but they have both the behavioural and hippocampal actions predicted by the theory. This text is the second edition of the book and it departs significantly from the first. It provides, for the first time, a single construct — goal conflict — that underlies all the known inputs to the system; and it includes current data on the amygdala. Its reviews include the ethology of defence, learning theory, the psychopharmacology of anti-anxiety drugs, anxiety disorders, and the clinical and laboratory analysis of amnesia. The cognitive and behavioural functions in anxiety of the septo-hippocampal system and the amygdala are also analysed, as are their separate roles in memory and fear. Their functions are related to a hierarchy of additional structures — from the prefrontal cortex to the periaqueductal gray — that control the various forms of defensive behaviour and to detailed analysis of the monoamine systems that modulate this control. The resultant neurology is linked to the typology, symptoms, pre-disposing personality and therapy of anxiety and phobic disorders, and to the symptoms of amnesia. Less

The Neuropsychology of Vision

Manfred Fahle, Mark Greenlee (eds)

This book describes a range of new approaches to neuropsychological investigation and provides a broad overview of visual neuropsychology. It starts by presenting the results from new ... More

This book describes a range of new approaches to neuropsychological investigation and provides a broad overview of visual neuropsychology. It starts by presenting the results from new research employing single-unit recordings on the neuronal basis of perception demonstrating that the visual system relies strongly on feedback from higher to lower levels of information processing, and that neuronal plasticity exists in the primary sensory cortices of adults, areas previously considered to be hard-wired. The book also describes other new and adapted techniques to measure brain activity, including multi-unit sum potential recording, functional magnetic resonance imaging and employing transcranial magnetic stimulation to induce temporary, circumscribed functional lesions in the cortices of normal subjects to mimic disorders. The coverage then moves on to review the experience of patients suffering from disturbances of visual perception. The disorders covered include agnosia, neglect, blindsight, and achromatopsia. The final chapter is devoted to recovery and rehabilitation from cerebral visual disorder. Less