COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SYSTEM OF MODERN REHABILITATION

Modern medicine is increasingly confronted with diseases in the field of neuropsychology and often people suffer from impaired cognitive function. Therefore, the issue of rehabilitation in the field of cognitive neuropsychology has always remained relevant. Moreover, the rapid development of modern technology is also helping to improve the process of rehabilitation and recovery. The neuropsychological direction is the most important aspect of the neurorehabilitation of this category of patients. Methods of neuropsychological diagnostics have proven their validity in the clinic of strokes, traumatic brain injuries, neuroinfections, brain tumors, etc. In this regard, this article examines the role of cognitive neuropsychology in the system of modern neurorehabilitation.

Nominal Number and Language Pathologies

This chapter provides an overview of the evidence on grammatical number processing taken from cognitive neuropsychology, including developmental delays and impairments of language (e.g. developmental language disorder, and Williams syndrome) and aphasia, an acquired language impairment after brain injury. These types of language impairment can give insight into the functional architecture of nominal number processing by looking at error patterns that arise in each of the aforementioned populations. By classifying observed responses in language production tasks into non-number and number errors, we are able to reveal underlying mechanisms of syntactic rules and their representations when they develop, but also learn about processes and representation of number when this information breaks down.

The strange role of brain lesion size in cognitive neuropsychology

The size of brain lesions is a variable that is frequently considered in cognitive neuropsychology. In particular, lesion-deficit inference studies often control for lesion size, and the association of lesion size with post-stroke cognitive deficits and its predictive value are studied. In the present article, the role of lesion size in cognitive deficits and its computational or design-wise consideration is discussed and questioned. First, I argue that the commonly discussed role or effect of lesion size in cognitive deficits eludes us. A generally valid understanding of the causal relation of lesion size, lesion location, and cognitive deficits is unachievable. Second, founded on the theory of covariate control, I argue that lesion size control is no valid covariate control. Instead, it is identified as a procedure with only situational benefits, which is supported by empirical data. This theoretical background is used to suggest possible research practices in lesion-deficit inference, post-stroke outcome prediction, and behavioural studies. Last, control for lesion size is put into a bigger methodological and also historical context – it is identified to relate to a long-known association problem in neuropsychology, which was previously discussed from the perspectives of a mislocalisation in lesion-deficit mapping and the symptom complex approach. Highlights - Lesion size is a factor that is often considered or controlled in neuropsychology - No general causal relation between lesion size, lesion location and deficit exists - Lesion size in brain mapping, outcome prediction and behavioural study is discussed - Lesion size control is no valid covariate control - Practical suggestions and guidelines how to consider lesion size are provided

A Computational Study of Executive Dysfunction in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Executive dysfunction is a well-documented, yet nonspecific corollary of various neurological diseases and psychiatric disorders. Here, we applied computational modeling of latent cognition for executive control in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. We utilized a parallel reinforcement learning model of trial-by-trial Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) behavior. Eighteen ALS patients and 21 matched healthy control participants were assessed on a computerized variant of the WCST (cWCST). ALS patients showed latent cognitive symptoms, which can be characterized as bradyphrenia and haphazard responding. A comparison with results from a recent computational Parkinson’s disease (PD) study (Steinke et al., 2020, J Clin Med) suggests that bradyphrenia represents a disease-nonspecific latent cognitive symptom of ALS and PD patients alike. Haphazard responding seems to be a disease-specific latent cognitive symptom of ALS, whereas impaired stimulus-response learning seems to be a disease-specific latent cognitive symptom of PD. These data were obtained from the careful modeling of trial-by-trial behavior on the cWCST, and they suggest that computational cognitive neuropsychology provides nosologically specific indicators of latent facets of executive dysfunction in ALS (and PD) patients, which remain undiscoverable for traditional behavioral cognitive neuropsychology. We discuss implications for neuropsychological assessment, and we discuss opportunities for confirmatory computational brain imaging studies.

Contrasting shared- and specific-mechanism accounts of developmental prosopagnosia: A new approach

The understanding of developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is dominated by two opposing views: (i) that DP reflects malfunction of a mechanism shared by face and object recognition, but which is more critical for face than for object recognition, or (ii) that DP is due to malfunction of a mechanism specific to faces, but where object recognition deficits may co-occur due to collateral damage. Here we address some of the limitations in DP studies on this point by examining face and car recognition in a large cohort of healthy subjects selected in an unbiased manner. At the group level we find evidence of a general association between face and car recognition performance but at the individual level we also find occasional dissociations. We discuss the methodological implications of these findings for cognitive neuropsychology in general (association vs. dissociation) but also the theoretical implications for the current understanding of DP more specifically.

The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Depression in Adolescents

Purpose of Review Adolescent depression is a major public health concern associated with severe outcomes. A lack of efficacious interventions has triggered an increase in cognitive neuropsychology research to identify relevant treatment targets for new interventions. This review summarises key neurocognitive findings in adolescent depression and explores the potential of neurocognitive markers as treatment targets in new interventions. Recent Findings Studies support difficulties in the voluntary deployment of attention towards and away from emotional stimuli, negative interpretation biases and overgeneralised autobiographical memories in adolescent depression; however, little evidence is given to a general decline in executive function. There is consistent evidence for abnormalities in several distributed neural networks in adolescent depression, including dysfunction in and between the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum. Summary The relationships between different cognitive biases and abnormalities in specific neural networks remain unclear. Several new experimental interventions targeting these neurocognitive markers await evaluation.

Characteristics of cognitive in children with learning difficulties

In order to explore the relationship between cognitive function in children with learning difficulties and social environment, this study uses the Wechsler Intelligence Scale and the self-made general environment questionnaire to investigate 185 children with learning difficulties and compares them with 185 normal children, and gives attention test to 50 children with learning difficulties. The results show that family environment has a certain influence on the children with learning difficulties, they have a significantly lower verbal intelligence quotient (VIQ), performance intelligence quotient (PIQ) and full scale intelligence quotient (FIQ), and the separation of VIQ and P IQ is common among them. As the children with learning difficulties grow older, their ability for abstract generalization tends to decline, which may be a characteristic of their intelligence development. This study aims to compare the functional differences in cortical regions between children with learning difficulties and children without from the perspective of cognitive neuropsychology, so as to provide effective assistance for children with learning difficulties.