COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Neuropsychology

Cognitive Neuropsychology

Cognitive neuropsychology is a recent approach that uses the concepts and methods of cognitive psychology to study cognitive dysfunctions underlying neuropsychological disorders (cognitive deficits, biases and dysfunctional beliefs in their conscious and unconscious states). This approach proposes that cognitive dysfunctions, which are closely related to emotional and relational processes, contribute to the development, maintenance and recurrence of neuropsychological disorders or symptoms.

In patients suffering from cognitive disorders ranging from dyslexia to schizophrenia, neurodiagnostic testing with high-powered imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) can pinpoint specific areas of dysfunction in the brain. The center's neuropsychologists then examine the corresponding disturbances in cognition. By finding correlations between sites in the brain that are dysfunctional biologically and particular deficits of behavior, scientists are learning more about how these functions are organized in the brain in the first place. Using computer simulations of normal performance that are then subjected to simulated brain damage, they can assess whether the hypotheses incorporated in the models provide a full understanding of the patients' behavioral deficits. Computer simulations can then be used to determine how best to retrain the damaged network to maximize recovery of function. ( Baltimore. 1996 93)

Cognitive neuropsychology identifies cognitive, emotional and relational deficits in relation to brain lesions in order to better understand the organization and functioning of normal psychological processes. More specifically, cognitive neuropsychology examines whether the pattern of difficulties experienced by the brain-damaged patient can be interpreted within the framework of existing models of normal cognition. This allows the application of the most appropriate existing model, or alternatively, the formulation of a new theoretical hypothesis. Cognitive neuropsychology has recently recognized the affective and social deficits associated with brain lesions. The approach of cognitive neuropsychology is therefore closely related to cognitive and affective neurosciences whose ...