Methods in Neuropsychology

Chapter 4

Anatomical Methods

• Identifying anatomical connections

– Axoplasmic transport

• Anterograde

• Retrograde

• Structural imaging methods

– Angiography (opaque dye in blood)

– Pneumoecephalography (air in ventricles)

– Computerized Tomography (CT) Scan (subtle x-ray shadows)

– Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) (hydrogen atoms line up in magnetic field show density)

Methods Measuring Function

• Functional imaging methods– Regional Cerebral Blood Flow (rCBF) radioactive isotope in blood– Positron Emission Tomography (PET) radioactive ion -

metabolism– Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography (SPECT)– Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) active neurons

increase blood flow in vicinty

• Neurophysiological methods– Single cell recording– Electroencephalography– Event related potentials (ERP’s) averaging techniques– Electrocorticography (ECo) direct stimulation of exposed cortex

Lesion Methods

• Dissociation of function

• Interpretation of single and double dissociation

• Associated impairments

• Dissociations as a window on the structure of cognition and on localization of function

• Limits on the interpretation of dissociations

Commissurotomy

• Split brain surgery

• Dichotic listening

• suppression

Sodium Amobarbital Test

• Hemispheric specialization and handedness

• Use in management of focal seizures

• Testing procedure

Studies of People

• Studies of people with behavioral and cognitive abnormalities

• Studies of normal people: laterality studies