M1, T1, intro to cog neuro Flashcards
What is cognitive neuropsychology?
- Examines variety of problems in carrying out everyday behaviours that is associated with brain injury or brain developmental problems
- Aim is to study patients with brain damage -> to understand the mind -> understand other patients’ deficits -> rehabilitation/treatment programs
- Cognitive Neuropsychology explains symptoms of brain injured patients relative to normal cognitive function
eg. perception, memory, language, movement
Optic aphasia
inability to name visually presented objects with intact visual object recognition processes (patient can mime the use of objects)
Utilization Behaviour
Actions for use of objects intact but patient uses objects in an inappropriate context.
- Occurs because of poor task based control and actions are triggered by strong “use” of environmental cues
Cognitive psychology
study of mental processes/the mind
e.g. face and object recognition, speech, writing, planning
Neuropsychology
study of how particular brain structures and processes mediate behaviour
Cognitive neuropsychology
combination of both cognitive psychology and neuropsychology with emphasis on understanding the mind
Developmental cognitive neuropsychology
study the development of normal cognitive function
Cognitive neuroscience
branch of neuroscience, study of the neural systems (brain) that carry out cognitive function
Cognitive neuropsychiatry
applications of cognitive neuropsychology methods to understand/explain disorders of higher-level cognition
Ultra or radical or orthodox cognitive neuropsychology
- Assess patient’s performance and link to normal models of cognitive function
- Emphasis on mind
- Less concerned about neural correlates of patient performance or impairment
- Focus on case study approach to studying patients
Functional or localization cognitive neuropsychology
Associations across large number of patients
Associations between task performance and lesion locations and how this links to cognition
Aims of cognitive neuropsychology
- explains patterns of impaired and intact cognitive function in brain injured patients
- link these patterns of damage to components of theory/models normal cognitive function
- information from brain injured patients (impaired and intact processes) -> conclusions (theories and models) normal cognitive function
Challenges of cognitive neuropsychology
- patient has to be willing to undertake significant research
- patient has to remain stable across time
- time consuming to complete proper case study research
- brain damage in uncontrolled
Threats to the relevance of cognitive neuropsychology research
- Incentive to use latest technique (e.g. imaging, TMS)
- Focus on neural rather than cognitive processes
- Reliance on big data (100s participants)
- Neuroplasticity
Threats to the relevance of cognitive neuropsychology research - big data
- Reliance on big data (100s participants)
- Very very large data sets
- Data analysed computationally to examine patterns, trends and associations
- Useful to examine human behaviour
Methodological approaches of traditional neuropsychology
- Group patients based on common co-occurrence of symptoms (syndromes)
- Aim: determine location brain lesions
- Not concerned with specific cognitive processes
- Loss information individual patients
Empirical approaches within cognitive neuropsychology
- single case studies
- case series studies
- multiple case studies
- neuropsychology
Neuropsychology empirical approaches
- focus on neural parameters
- multiple patients
- group averages
Single case studies empirical approaches
- single patient tested across multiple tasks
- detailed study of patient
- control participant(s)
- may design treatment based on patient profile
Case study series empirical approaches
- single patient tested across multiple tasks
- multiple patients
- detailed study of patient
- control participant(s)
- may design and test efficacy of treatment based on patient profile
- patient(s) study across time
Multiple case studies empirical appraoches
- single patient cases
- related studies
- concatenated
Generalisability of patient case studies is achieved as -
- Theoretically driven approach to patient assessment
- Theory/model cognitive function must account for all patient cases within disorder
- Theory/model must also explain normal cognitive function in same cognitive domain
- Converging data sources to confirm/falsify theory/model
- > cognitive psychology experiments
- > cognitive neuropsychology patient data and
- > computer/computational models of cognition
Dual Route Cascade Model of Reading
- normal adult reading
- reading development
- reading disorders - dyslexia
- experiments normal adult readers and children learning to read
- patient reading skills
- computational modelling of normal adult readers and patients (dyslexias)
Associations - inference from data to theory cog neuropsych
- Look for pattern of impairments across tasks
- Association of symptoms across patient’s performance on a number of tasks
- Example: Patient KM performing (and failing)
- > a word recognition task,
- > a face recognition task and
- > an object recognition task
- do all tasks use same processor or processes?
Interpreting associations of task performance
- all 3 tasks use a common cognitive processes OR
- no overlap between cognitive processes and discrete sets of cognitive processes are mediated by adjacent brain areas
- for example, Gerstmann’s syndrome (damage to left parietal cortex)
- > symptoms of acalculia, finger agnosia, right-left disorientation and dysgraphia
Dissociations - inference from data to theory
- Look for different patterns of performance across tasks
- Determine impaired and intact cognitive functions
- Patient KM performing word and face recognition tasks, only failing one
- Tasks must tap separate Cognitive Processes
- BUT what if differences due to task difficulty?
Double dissociation - inference from data to theory
- find two patients with opposite pattern of task performance
Assumptions of cog neuropsych
- fractionation assumption
- modularity assumption
- transparency or subtractivity
- universality assumption
Fractionation assumption
brain damage results in selective impairments of cog processing
Neurological Specificity of Isomorphism - correspondence between mind and brain (monism)
Modularity assumption
cog processes operate via a series of independent modules (functional modules)
Neural processes operate via anatomical modules
Transparency or subtractivity
analysis of pattern of intact and impaired performance -> type and function of impaired processes (module/s)
Universality assumption
all cog architectures the same initially (uniformity of functional architecture)
Module types
Functional modularity: mental processes = functional architecture, cog modules
Knowledge modules: independent of other bodies of knowledge
Processing modules: independent processor of information
Anatomical modularity: specific brain region
Neurochemical modularity: specific neurotransmitter
Modularity hypothesis (MH)
- double dissociation -> cog skills mediated by numerous semi-independent cog processes or systems
- each process/system can be impaired separately
- Mental life made possible by activity of multiple cognitive processors or modules
e. g. reading, face recognition, speech, and decision making - Modules independent but inter-communicate
- Modules -> diagrams of cognitive processes
Criticisms of using diagrams to explain cognition
- diagrams limited, e.g. single word vs syntax
- lack specification internal workings modules
- basis patient data -> post-hoc theories (falsifiable)
- diagrams superimposed on left hemisphere
Modularity of mind (Fodor)
- information encapsulated: processing in module isolated from rest of system
- domain specific: 1 type of input, e.g. visual or spoken word
- mandatory module operation: automatic, e.g. recognition familiar persons
- innate, is this always true?
- fast operation
- neural specificity
- higher level processes not modular, e.g. reasoning, decision making
