Psychology Atlas

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Branches of Psychology

Neuropsychology

Physiological Psychology and Neuroscience

Neuropsychology explores how cognition and behavior relate to the function of the brain and nervous system, focusing especially on how brain injury or illness affects cognitive and behavioral function, through both experimental and clinical approaches.

Facts
Disputed
Key Debate
Neuropsychology has long debated whether specific cognitive functions are narrowly localized to individual brain regions or instead depend on distributed, coordinated networks, a tension traceable to Lashley's mass-action findings against the localizationist work of Broca, Wernicke and Brodmann, and still visible in the choice between functional-localization and parallel-processing models today. 1
Central Question
Neuropsychology studies how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system, including how brain injury or illness affects cognitive and behavioral function. 1
Connections

Associated With

Alexander Luria, Psychologists

Generally credited as founding modern neuropsychology.

Brenda Milner, Psychologists

Pioneering neuropsychologist whose work with patient H.M. mapped memory to specific brain structures.

Includes

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Neuropsychology
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system.
  • Cognitive neuropsychology section
    An alternative model of the link between mind and brain, such as parallel processing, may have more explanatory power for the workings and dysfunction of the human brain.
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