Neuropsychology Flashcards
What is Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology is the science of how the structure and function of the brain relate to psychological processes
As a basic science it tries to understand these links experimentally
As a clinical science it aims to understand how specific impairments relate to impaired brain mechanisms and vice versa
Why do we use standardised tests?
-have a common format used with everyone
and typically involve comparing an individual’s performance to a set of ‘norms’ to understand where they fall against a comparison group
Who first introduced standardised cognitive testing?
Standardised assessment was first invented by Alfred Binet to identify children with learning disabilities who needed additional support in Paris schools
What is eugenics?
Eugenics is on the surface a movement that seeks to select ‘desirable’ characteristics to improve future generations through ‘selective breeding’
Questions that help understand different cultural meanings of psych help?
-What is the role and function of clinical services and how do I interact with them?
-What is a psychologist and what are they for?
-Why am I being assessed?
-What do assessments attempt to achieve and how do they go about it?
-What are the consequences of the assessment – personally and practically?
What are some of the question we will want ask ourselves when working with interpreters in neuro?
-Does the interpreter understand how the specific format of communication is part of the assessment?
-How easy is it for certain words to be translated into another language?
-Regardless of the words, do the concepts translate?
What percentage of homeless people exhibit global cognitive deficits?
4% to 7% of homeless people exhibit global cognitive deficits (Burra et al, 2009)
What’s the mean IQ of the homeless population?
Mean IQ index of 84.8 (Depp et al, 2015)
What are the main causes of cognitive difficulties?
Evidence suggests:
Severe mental health problems
Developmentally poor cognition
Brain injury
Alcohol
What percentage of homeless adults would fulfill a formal diagnosis of intellectual disability?
5-39% (Rough estimate)
What was the lifetime prevalence of a traumatic brain injury in the homeless?
53.1%
What are the current findings with regard to whether homeless people suffer brain injury before homelessness or during?
-70-90% suffer brain injury before homelessness (Stone et al, 2019)
-37.2% of homeless adults suffered a brain injury during 3-year follow-ups (Nikoo et al, 2017)
What are the most common cause of brain injury in homeless?
Most studies find assault to be the most common cause
Some evidence of substance use leading to falls to be another important cause (Topolovec-Vranic et al, 2014)
