PSYC 170 - Summer 2013 - Professor Claffey

Neuropsychology

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What is it?

• mind and brain
• structure and function
• focus on dysfunction
• clinical
• experimental

In contrast to...

• psychology
• cognitive science
• neuroscience
• cognitive neuroscience
  
• clinical psychology
• psychiatry
• neurology

Historical context

• earliest forms of neuroscience
• 1860s Broca, Wernicke - localization
  
• World War II era, A.R. Luria - advanced clinical neuropsychology
  
• Versus psychology: James (1890), Freud (1890-), Behavioralism (1950s)

Modern Directions in Research

• aging population drives growing demand for disease treatment
• Alzhiemer's
• Parkinson's
  
• stroke recovery
  
• increasing focus on the brain
• April 2013: Obama's $100 million BRAIN initiative
• MIT has "Brain and Cognitive Sciences", but no psychology department
• neuroscience advances in
• imaging: PET, fMRI
  
• genetics: transgenic vaccines, optogenetics
• molecular