Neuropsychology

Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology focus on how injuries or illnesses of the brain affect cognitive and behavioral functions.[1]

It is both an experimental and clinical field of patient-focused psychology, thus aiming to understand how behavior and cognition are influenced by brain function and concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral and cognitive effects of neurological disorders. Whereas classical neurology focuses on the pathology of the nervous system and classical psychology is largely divorced from it, neuropsychology seeks to discover how the brain correlates with the mind through the study of neurological patients. It thus shares concepts and concerns with neuropsychiatry and with behavioral neurology in general. The term neuropsychology has been applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also been applied in efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells (or groups of cells) in higher primates (including some studies of human patients).[2]

In practice, neuropsychologists tend to work in research settings (universities, laboratories, or research institutions), clinical settings (medical hospitals or rehabilitation settings, often involved in assessing or treating patients with neuropsychological problems), or forensic settings or industry (often as clinical-trial consultants where CNS function is a concern).[citation needed]

  1. ^ Gluck MA, Mercado E, Myers CE (2016). Learning and Memory: From Brain to Behavior. New York/NY, US: Worth Publishers. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-319-15405-9.
  2. ^ Posner MI, DiGirolamo GJ (November 2000). "Cognitive neuroscience: origins and promise". Psychological Bulletin. 126 (6): 873–889. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.126.6.873. PMID 11107880.