Developmental neuropsychology

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Developmental neuropsychology combines the fields of neuroscience and developmental psychology, while drawing from various other related disciplines. It examines the relationship of behavior and brain function throughout the course of an individual's lifespan, though often emphasis is put on childhood and adolescence when the majority of brain development occurs. [1] Research tends to focus on development of important behavioral functions like perception, language, and other cognitive processes. [2] Studies in this field are often centered around children or other individuals with developmental disorders or various kinds of brain related trauma or injury. A key concept of this field is that looks at and attempts to relate the psychological aspects of development, such as behavior, comprehension, cognition, etc., to the specific neural structures; it draws parallels between behavior and mechanism in the brain. [3] Research in this field involves various cognitive tasks and tests as well as neuroimaging. Some of the many conditions studied by developmental neuropsychologists include congenital or acquired brain damage, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit disorder, executive dysfunction, seizures, intellectual disabilities, obsessive compulsive disorder, stuttering, schizophrenia, developmental aphasia, and other learning delays such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyspraxia. [4]

Contents

History

Alexander Luria is considered by some to be a founding father of the field of neuropsychology. [5] Luria's work, much of which was related to speech rehabilitation, [6] provided much of the foundation for what we know today as child neuropsychology (developmental neuropsychology focusing only on beginning of lifespan). The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery, a standardized test of neuropsychological functioning, was created based on his ideas. Lev Vygotsky, a student of Luria, also made significant contributions to child neuropsychology. Together, their methods have developed the basis for what is known as the Vygotsky-Luria approach. This approach is characterized by the idea that "higher psychological functions are characterized by three main features: (1) social genesis; (2) system structure; and (3) dynamic organization and localization" [7] [8] [9] and examines the neural organization and function structure behind these higher mental functions. [10]

Over time, completion of education to at least the high school level has become increasingly common as more and more jobs require skills such as reading and writing. As pressure to have children complete their schooling increases, so has the pressure to provide adequate education to all children. This has led to laws whose aim is to ensure education for disabled students. In order to accomplish this, research focus began to shift from adults who were skilled or struggled to read and write to the developmental processes behind them. [3]

Subfields

Research in developmental neuropsychology can generally be divided into two categories that are based on two main goals of the field: educational and clinical. The educational approach aims to understand and aid in the education of developing children (or in some cases adults) whom have deficits learning certain skills, most commonly language related – reading and writing. While some studies do focus on children with brain damage, a lot can be learned from children without brain damage who struggle to learn specific skills and/or have learning disabilities. The goal of this research is to understand the neural causes of these problems and how they relate to the psychological aspects of it in order to improve education programs and treatments. The clinical approach has a greater focus on pathology and medical treatments and diagnoses. Often these studies evaluate and describe a patient's neural damage due to injury, brain tumors, seizures, or various congenital disorders. This type of research typically examines loss of certain functions due to damage and assesses to what extent if any can patients, usually children with still developing brains, can regain these functions. [3] The objective of a neuropsychological evaluation is to have a comprehensive view of a child's overall functioning, including how their brain operates, their strengths and limitations, their preferred learning style, and any potential abnormalities. This process is essential in the evaluation for the medical provider.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cognitive neuroscience</span> Scientific field

Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific field that is concerned with the study of the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain which are involved in mental processes. It addresses the questions of how cognitive activities are affected or controlled by neural circuits in the brain. Cognitive neuroscience is a branch of both neuroscience and psychology, overlapping with disciplines such as behavioral neuroscience, cognitive psychology, physiological psychology and affective neuroscience. Cognitive neuroscience relies upon theories in cognitive science coupled with evidence from neurobiology, and computational modeling.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to neuroscience:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neuropsychology</span> Study of the brain related to specific psychological processes and behaviors

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 often focus on how injuries or illnesses of the brain affect cognitive and behavioral functions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neuropsychological test</span> Assess neurological function associated with certain behaviors and brain damage

Neuropsychological tests are specifically designed tasks that are used to measure a psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. Tests are used for research into brain function and in a clinical setting for the diagnosis of deficits. They usually involve the systematic administration of clearly defined procedures in a formal environment. Neuropsychological tests are typically administered to a single person working with an examiner in a quiet office environment, free from distractions. As such, it can be argued that neuropsychological tests at times offer an estimate of a person's peak level of cognitive performance. Neuropsychological tests are a core component of the process of conducting neuropsychological assessment, along with personal, interpersonal and contextual factors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cognitive neuropsychology</span>

Cognitive neuropsychology is a branch of cognitive psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relates to specific psychological processes. Cognitive psychology is the science that looks at how mental processes are responsible for the cognitive abilities to store and produce new memories, produce language, recognize people and objects, as well as our ability to reason and problem solve. Cognitive neuropsychology places a particular emphasis on studying the cognitive effects of brain injury or neurological illness with a view to inferring models of normal cognitive functioning. Evidence is based on case studies of individual brain damaged patients who show deficits in brain areas and from patients who exhibit double dissociations. Double dissociations involve two patients and two tasks. One patient is impaired at one task but normal on the other, while the other patient is normal on the first task and impaired on the other. For example, patient A would be poor at reading printed words while still being normal at understanding spoken words, while the patient B would be normal at understanding written words and be poor at understanding spoken words. Scientists can interpret this information to explain how there is a single cognitive module for word comprehension. From studies like these, researchers infer that different areas of the brain are highly specialised. Cognitive neuropsychology can be distinguished from cognitive neuroscience, which is also interested in brain-damaged patients, but is particularly focused on uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive processes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Luria</span> Russian neuropsychologist

Alexander Romanovich Luria was a Soviet neuropsychologist, often credited as a father of modern neuropsychology. He developed an extensive and original battery of neuropsychological tests during his clinical work with brain-injured victims of World War II, which are still used in various forms. He made an in-depth analysis of the functioning of various brain regions and integrative processes of the brain in general. Luria's magnum opus, Higher Cortical Functions in Man (1962), is a much-used psychological textbook which has been translated into many languages and which he supplemented with The Working Brain in 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinical neuropsychology</span> Sub-field of neuropsychology concerned with the applied science of brain-behaviour relationships

Clinical neuropsychology is a sub-field of cognitive science and psychology concerned with the applied science of brain-behaviour relationships. Clinical neuropsychologists use this knowledge in the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and or rehabilitation of patients across the lifespan with neurological, medical, neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, as well as other cognitive and learning disorders. The branch of neuropsychology associated with children and young people is pediatric neuropsychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neuropsychological assessment</span> Testing to identify brain impairments, their severity & location

Neuropsychological assessment was traditionally carried out to assess the extent of impairment to a particular skill and to attempt to determine the area of the brain which may have been damaged following brain injury or neurological illness. With the advent of neuroimaging techniques, location of space-occupying lesions can now be more accurately determined through this method, so the focus has now moved on to the assessment of cognition and behaviour, including examining the effects of any brain injury or neuropathological process that a person may have experienced.

Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult brain and cognitive psychology. Qualitative differences between how a child processes their waking experience and how an adult processes their waking experience are acknowledged. Cognitive development is defined as the emergence of the ability to consciously cognize, understand, and articulate their understanding in adult terms. Cognitive development is how a person perceives, thinks, and gains understanding of their world through the relations of genetic and learning factors. There are four stages to cognitive information development. They are, reasoning, intelligence, language, and memory. These stages start when the baby is about 18 months old, they play with toys, listen to their parents speak, they watch tv, anything that catches their attention helps build their cognitive development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wisconsin Card Sorting Test</span> Neuropsychological test

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is a neuropsychological test of set-shifting, which is the capability to show flexibility when exposed to changes in reinforcement. The WCST was written by David A. Grant and Esta A. Berg. The Professional Manual for the WCST was written by Robert K. Heaton, Gordon J. Chelune, Jack L. Talley, Gary G. Kay, and Glenn Curtiss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Executive functions</span> Cognitive processes necessary for control of behavior

In cognitive science and neuropsychology, executive functions are a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for the cognitive control of behavior: selecting and successfully monitoring behaviors that facilitate the attainment of chosen goals. Executive functions include basic cognitive processes such as attentional control, cognitive inhibition, inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Higher-order executive functions require the simultaneous use of multiple basic executive functions and include planning and fluid intelligence.

Edith F. Kaplan was an American psychologist. She was a pioneer of neuropsychological tests and did most of her work at the Boston VA Hospital. Kaplan is known for her promotion of clinical neuropsychology as a specialty area in psychology. She examined brain-behavioral relationships in aphasia, apraxia, developmental issues in clinical neuropsychology, as well as normal and abnormal aging. Kaplan helped develop a new method of assessing brain function with neuropsychological assessment, called "The Boston Process Approach."

NEPSY is a series of neuropsychological tests authored by Marit Korkman, Ursula Kirk and Sally Kemp, that is used in various combinations to assess neuropsychological development in children ages 3–16 years in six functional domains.

Cultural-historical psychology is a branch of psychological theory and practice associated with Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria and their Circle, who initiated it in the mid-1920s–1930s. The phrase "cultural-historical psychology" never occurs in the writings of Vygotsky, and was subsequently ascribed to him by his critics and followers alike, yet it is under this title that this intellectual movement is now widely known. The main goal of Vygotsky-Luria project was the establishment of a "new psychology" that would account for the inseparable unity of mind, brain and culture in their development in concrete socio-historical settings and throughout the history of humankind as socio-biological species. In its most radical forms, the theory that Vygotsky and Luria were attempting to build was expressed in terms of a "science of Superman", and was closely linked with the pronouncement for the need in a new psychological theory of consciousness and its relationship to the development of higher psychological functions. All this theoretical and experimental empirical work was attempted by the members of the Vygotsky Circle.

Neurodevelopmental framework for learning, like all frameworks, is an organizing structure through which learners and learning can be understood. Intelligence theories and neuropsychology inform many of them. The framework described below is a neurodevelopmental framework for learning. The neurodevelopmental framework was developed by the All Kinds of Minds Institute in collaboration with Dr. Mel Levine and the University of North Carolina's Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning. It is similar to other neuropsychological frameworks, including Alexander Luria's cultural-historical psychology and psychological activity theory, but also draws from disciplines such as speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. It also shares components with other frameworks, some of which are listed below. However, it does not include a general intelligence factor, since the framework is used to describe learners in terms of profiles of strengths and weaknesses, as opposed to using labels, diagnoses, or broad ability levels. This framework was also developed to link with academic skills, such as reading and writing. Implications for education are discussed below as well as the connections to and compatibilities with several major educational policy issues.

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The Luria–Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) is a standardized test that identifies neuropsychological deficiencies by measuring functioning on fourteen scales. It evaluates learning, experience, and cognitive skills. The test was created by Charles Golden in 1981 and based on previous work by Alexander Luria that emphasizes a qualitative instead of quantitative approach. The original, adult version is for use with ages fifteen and over, while the Luria–Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery for Children (LNNB-C) can be used with ages eight to twelve; both tests take two to three hours to administer. The LNNB has 269 items divided among fourteen scales, which are motor, rhythm, tactile, visual, receptive speech, expressive speech, writing, reading, arithmetic, memory, intellectual processes, pathognomonic, left hemisphere, and right hemisphere. The test is graded on scales that are correlated to regions of the brain to help identify which region may be damaged. The Luria–Nebraska has been found to be reliable and valid; it is comparable in this sense to other neuropsychological tests in its ability to differentiate between brain damage and mental illness. The test is used to diagnose and determine the nature of cognitive impairment, including the location of the brain damage, to understand the patient's brain structure and abilities, to pinpoint causes of behavior, and to help plan treatment.

Paul Satz was an American psychologist, and one of the founders of the discipline neuropsychology. His research on the relationship between the brain and human behavior spanned diverse topics including laterality, handedness, and developmental disorders. He published over 300 publications, received numerous grants and awards, and established the first neuropsychology lab. Towards the latter part of his career, Satz's research interests focused more on the cognitive deficits associated with head injury, dementia, and ageing.

References

  1. ↑ O'leary, Daniel S. (1990), "Neuropsychological Development in the Child and the Adolescent: Functional Maturation of the Central Nervous System", Developmental Psychology - Cognitive, Perceptuo-Motor and Neuropsychological Perspectives, Advances in Psychology, vol. 64, Elsevier, pp. 339–355, doi:10.1016/s0166-4115(08)60103-x, ISBN   978-0-444-88427-5
  2. ↑ Nelson, Charles A.; Luciana, Monica, eds. (2008). Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. doi:10.7551/mitpress/7437.001.0001. ISBN   9780262280532.
  3. 1 2 3 Berninger, Virginia W.; Hart, Teresa M. (September 1992). "A Developmental Neuropsychological Perspective for Reading and Writing Acquisition". Educational Psychologist. 27 (4): 415–434. doi:10.1207/s15326985ep2704_2. ISSN   0046-1520.
  4. ↑ "Clinical Neuropsychology". American Psychological Association. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  5. ↑ "L.Vygotsky, A.Luria and Developmental Neuropsychology.Psychology in Russia: State of the Art". psychologyinrussia.com. Retrieved 2021-10-01.
  6. ↑ Alexander Romanovich Luria : a scientific biography. Khomskai︠a︡, E. D. (Evgenii︠a︡ Davydovna), 1929-, Tupper, David E.,, Krotova, Darʹi︠a︡, 1977-. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. 2001. ISBN   0-306-46494-2. OCLC   44750791.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ↑ Akhutina, T. V. (April 1997). "The remediation of executive functions in children with cognitive disorders: the Vygotsky-Luria neuropsychological approach". Journal of Intellectual Disability Research. 41 (2): 144–151. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.1997.tb00691.x. ISSN   0964-2633. PMID   9161926.
  8. ↑ Vygotsky, L.S. (November 1965). "Psychology and localization of functions". Neuropsychologia. 3 (4): 381–386. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(65)90011-4. ISSN   0028-3932.
  9. ↑ Luria, A.R.; Karpov, B.A.; Yarbuss, A.L. (April 1966). "Disturbances of Active Visual Perception with Lesions of the Frontal Lobes". Cortex. 2 (2): 202–212. doi: 10.1016/s0010-9452(66)80003-5 . ISSN   0010-9452.
  10. ↑ Akhutina, Tatyana V.; Pylaeva, Nataly M. (2011). "L.Vygotsky, A.Luria and Developmental Neuropsychology". Psychology in Russia: State of the Art. 5 (1): 155. doi: 10.11621/pir.2011.0009 . ISSN   2074-6857.
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