What is your favorite aspect of neuropsycholgy?
I personally am fascinated with neuroplasticity and how behavior can change the brain. The neuroimaging studies that examine this are awesome.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Caleb P on -
I'm interested in the Basal Ganglia's role in executive functioning and attention. There is an amazing book out there by Leonard Koziol & Deborah Budding titled "Subcortical structures and cognition" - A must read for any advanced student.
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Permalink Reply by Janet Wise on -
Thanks for the recommendation! I am interested in anything that links the function of attention to neurophysiology.
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Permalink Reply by Erik Bo Jensen on -
For many years I also was intersted in neuroplasticity, and its fundamental forms ie anatomical, biochemical and physiological platicity. Such phenomena is closed related to the problems of learning and memory but also very complicated things to do research on.
Since then, the research of mainly biochemical memory has followed the explosive development of genetics.
For the last years I especially have become interested in the phenomenon psychological plasticity and its relationship to the three fundamental forms mentioned above. But the fields of learning and memory are to day enormous but of course very important areas in many fields of neuroscience and also very important for many
neuropsychologists. So psychological plasticity is my favorite aspect of neuropsychology and psychophysiology
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Permalink Reply by Janet Wise on
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I remember when I first heard Eric Kandel present the topic of Neuroplasticity at the 2002 Nobel Conference, I knew where I should begin my to focus my efforts. Since then, Neuroscience has grown, but Neuropsychology has always been a safe area to restrict my energies. Psychology continues to be the perspective with which I view human behavior and emotion; my analytical nature can drive my more fun-loving friends and associates nuts! I am interested in consciousness studies, particularly how they can testify of a human "will," or "spirit;" I have used principles of Mindfulness, DBT, and CBT, in addition to Roberto Assagioli's "Act of Will," to help clients learn to think and reframe cognitive distortions, and implement positive habits into their lifestyles. But I am ready to take these principles back into the area of academia, and look for their biological and physiological underpinnings.
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Permalink Reply by Mitchell Slutzky on -
I believe the term neuropsychology needs to be clarified a bit. Normally, when talking about neuropsychology we are concerned primarily about cognition, specifically what cognitive functions are strengths, which are weaknesses, especially which are below normal and suggest neurological problems.
Neuropsychology tends to look at emotions as modifiers of cognition. One can do poorly on a task due to damage to a brain region, but it can also be caused by emotional interference due to intense affect states (distraction, dissociation, fear, anger, depression...). The neuropsychological evaluation attempts to separate emotional from neurocognitive problems.
But emotions themselves are finally becoming a subject of neuroscientific inquiry in their own right. The affective neurosciences have come into their own only since we found better ways of measuring events in real time through various brain imaging techniques. As a result, we now know a lot more about the role of the limbic system, the role of thalamic relays, basal ganglia, the cerebellum and other important regions, and how damage to these areas can alter both affect and cognition.
I believe it would help the field of neuropsychology to pay more attention to the brain structures and the neural networks of affect, not just on how affect mediates cognition. This is especially true because chronic affect dysregulation literally leads to brain structural changes.
For more on this, look at Allan Schore's writings wherein he assembles a number of studies that substantiate this assertion.
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Permalink Reply by Neuropsychology Dude on
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Well when I'm a neuropsychologist I am going to focus on stuff like this so hopefully I'll do my small part in sustaining neuropsychology's academic health. Really I think neuropsychology has great potential because to be a neuropsychologist you know tons of clinical psychology research and then you can apply those paradigms to how the brain changes which would just be super awesome :P
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Permalink Reply by Janet Wise on
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Whoa, Dude. Like, I love it that you want to be a neuropsychologist when you grow up. I'm 51, and I am JUST NOW finding out what I want to do! What do you think about Psychoneuroimmunology? P.S.: You make me yearn to be on the West Coast again!
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