Lesson Structure:  Neuropsychology

There are 10 lessons

1. Foundations of Neuropsychology
   • What is neuropsychology?
   • The Information Processing Approach
   • Studying the human mind
   • Techniques used
   • Brain scans
   • Animal studies
   • Methods of investigating the brain
   • Psychological tests
   • Stroop test
2. Neurophysiology
   • Neurons
   • Parts of a neuron
   • Neurotransmitters
   • Effects of neurotransmitters
   • Neurotransmitters and their effects
   • Endorphins
   • Disorders associated with neurotransmitters
   • Glia cells
   • Schwann cells
   • Nerve impulse
   • Synaptic transmission
   • Nerve impulse
   • Neuromuscular transmission
3. Neuroanatomy
   • The nervous system
   • Parts of the central nervous system
   • The brain
   • The spinal cord
   • Spinal nerves
   • Blood brain barrier
   • Peripheral nervous system
   • Autonomic nervous system
   • Sensory somatic nervous system
   • Spinal nerves
   • Cranial nerves
   • How the nervous system works (a summary)
   • Problems with brain functioning
   • Cerebral palsy
   • Brain tumours
   • Injuries to the head
   • Epilepsy
   • Headaches
   • Mental illness
   • Meningitis and encephalitis
4. Laterality and Callosal Syndromes
   • Brain lateralisation
   • Left handedness
   • Cognitive neuropsychology
   • Callosal syndrome
   • Complete severance
   • Split brain
   • Complete severance
   • Split brain syndrome
   • Lobotomy
   • Psychosurgery
   • Dual brain theory
5. Cognition, Personality and Emotion
   • Brain damage
   • Emotion and moods
   • Phineas Gage
   • Brain damage and emotion
   • Frontal lobe
   • Higher level functioning
   • The Limbic system
   • Neurotransmitters
   • Neuropsychology
   • Emotions research
6. Perception Disorders
   • Hemispatial neglect
   • Causes of hemispatial neglect
   • Auditory perceptual disorder
   • Agnosia
   • Visual agnosia
   • Types of visual agnosia
   • Prosopagnosia
   • Simultanagnosia
   • Optic aphasia
   • Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder
7. Motor Disorders
   • Parkinson’s Disease
   • Motor disorders resulting from traumatic brain injury
   • Non traumatic and/or genetic paediatric movement disorders
   • Cerebral palsy
   • Motor conditions
   • Gerstmann’s Syndrome
   • Apraxia
   • Motor skills disorder
   • Motion dyspraxia
   • Neural transplants and Parkinson’s Disease
   • Gene therapy
   • How does gene therapy work
   • Ethical issues surrounding gene therapy
8. Language
   • Broca’s area
   • Wernicke’s area
   • Speech
   • Language
   • Speech and language disorders
   • Apraxia
   • Aphasia
   • Stuttering
   • Neurogenic stuttering
   • Troyer syndrome
   • Speech disorders
9. Dementia
   • Kinds of dementia
   • Alzheimer’s Disease
   • Vascular Dementia
   • Multi-infarct Dementia
   • Parkinson’s Disease
   • Pick’s Disease
   • Dementia with Lewy Bodies
   • Huntingdon’s Disease
   • Pseudo-Dementia
   • Spotting dementia and other conditions 
10. Neurodevelopment
    • Major processes of neurodevelopment
    • Neurogenesis
    • Migration
    • Differentiation
    • Apoptosis
    • Aborisation
    • Synaptogenesis
    • Asperger Syndrome
    • Neuroplasticity and brain damage

Each lesson requires the completion of an assignment which is submitted to the academy, marked by the academy’s tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Learning Goals:  Neuropsychology BPS306

• To describe the relevance of neuropsychology to managing psychological disorders.
• To explain the physiology of the nervous system.
• To describe the anatomy of the nervous system.
• To describe how conditions within the brain affect the way in which a person is physically capable or incapable of performing a variety of different tasks.
• To explain how various aspects of a person’s thought processes may vary according to that person’s neurobiology.
• To describe a variety of perceptual disorders.
• To explain a variety of motor disorders.
• To explain the neuropsychology of language.
• To differentiate between different dementias.
• To explain aspects of development in neuropsychological terms.

Practicals:

• Learn about the development of Neuropsychology and techniques used in human neuropsychological studies;
• Describe the Neuroanatomy of:
  • Brainstem
  • Cerebellum and cerebral cortex
  • Organisation of the cerebral cortex
  • Cranial nerves , brain covering, ventricular system, arteries
  • Brain malfunction
  • Visual system
  • Other systems;

• Determine why there is laterality;
• Discuss callosal syndrome;
• Discuss and compare theories of frontal lobe function;
• Contrast normal aspects and abnormal aspects of emotion from a neuropsychological perspective;
• Develop a diagnostic table of perceptual disorders;
• Determine how the brain perceives faces;
• Discuss language formation;
• Describe language disorders;
• Develop a table of kind of dementia;
• Learn how recovery of function is affected across age spans.

The spinal cord is the continuation of the medulla oblongata, and can be described as a bundle of nerve fibres that carry both sensory and motor impulses to and from the brain. The cord is divided into segments down the length of the spinal column, and it has a covering of axons, making it a highly effective transmitter of impulses.

The spinal cord is protected inside the vertebral column, which is made up of 24 separate vertebrae or bone segments. The cord also contains an area which is responsible for many of the reflex actions of the body, which are governed by the peripheral system (see Peripheral system, below).

Cerebrospinal fluid

In the centre of the spinal cord is a canal filled with cerebrospinal fluid, which circulates up and down the spinal cord and into cavities of the brain, bathing the entire surface of the CNS. This fluid moves in a system of cavities called ventricles, and serves several important functions, including:

• It decreases the pressure on the base of brain
• It provides a buffer to protect the brain from blows to the head
• It transports hormones that are released into it to other parts of the brain
• Because it always flows to the blood, it takes potentially harmful substances away from the brain.

Spinal nerves

Information received by receptors in the body below the head is transmitted to the brain through spinal nerves along the spinal cord.  Each spinal nerve is equipped to both receive sensory impulses from sensory nerves and send motor impulses to muscles, and each is connected to a particular part of the body.

Each segment of spinal chord gives rise to of spinal nerves which descend in the vertebral canal briefly before merging within intervertebral foramina (spaces where nerves can pass through), after which they exit the vertebral canal to transmit motor impulses to specific parts of the body.

Different kinds of sensory information entering the spinal cord follow different, clearly defined paths to different areas of the somatosensory cortex (where such impulses are received). Most input into the brain is received from the opposite side of the body (contralateral to the receiving brain hemisphere), but some communication also crosses into the other hemisphere via the corpus callosum, allowing for greater integration of information.

In the spinal cord, cell bodies and synapses are found in the grey matter, an area of unmyelinated neurons where cell bodies and synapses between sensory and motor neurons occur.

Spinal curves

There are three natural curves of the spine which give it its flexibility. These are the cervical curve (neck area), thoracic curve (middle spine), lumbar curve (lower spine), and sacral curve (at base of spine). Spinal nerves in the cervical region exit the vertebral column just above their corresponding vertebra, which those in the other regions exit the column just below their corresponding vertebra.

Spinal nerves merge to create plexuses (interconnected nerve fibres). Four plexuses arise from the four regions of the spine: the brachial plexus, the thoracic plexus, the lumbar plexus, and the sacral plexus. These further create combinations that are the peripheral nerves.

Spinal Tracts

Spinal tracts are groups of fibres inside the CNS that carry information up or down the spinal cord, to or from the brain, or from one place within the brain to another. They are part of the spine’s “white matter”, make up of myelinated fibres (not the same as myelination in nerves).

This white matter contains tracts that travel to and from the brain, the ascending tracts carrying sensory impulses to the brain, the descending tracts carrying motor impulses from the brain to the body.

The white matter of the spinal cord contains tracts that travel up and down the cord. Many of these tracts travel to and from the brain to provide sensory input to the brain, or bring motor stimuli from the brain to control effectors. Ascending tracts, those which travel toward the brain are sensory, descending tracts are motor.

Ascending tracts include:

• Spinothalamic tracts, which carry pain and temperature sensory information from the spinal cord to the thalamus
• Dorsal columns, tracts which carry touch and  pressure information from the spinal cord to the brain

Descending tracts include:

• Corticospinal tracts, which carry motor impulses down from the cerebral cortex to the spinal cord.

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