week 6 - visual agnosia, deficits in perception

what is the study of cog neuropsych

• Studies cognitive impairments

why is cog psych useful

• By looking at what’s gone wrong, we can see how cognitive processes work

• Use pattern of deficits to develop models of cognitive functions

what does cog psych look at

• case studies of patients with brain lesions 

• Examines what tasks patients are impaired at

• Examines what patients can do

• Uses this information to understand cognitive tasks

ways of acquiring brain damage

• neurosurgery

• strokes

• traumatic head injuries

• tumours

• viral infections

• neurogenerative disorders

neurosurgery

• In absence of pharmacological treatments patients sometimes have neurosurgery

• E.g. In cases of severe epilepsy, severe the corpus callosum

strokes

• Disruption to the blood supply in the brain 

• By blood clot or ruptured blood vessel

• Leads to death of neurons

traumatic head injuries

• The most common form of brain injury in people under 40 years of age.

• Particularly common in young males due to road traffic accidents

tumours

• The brain is the second most common site for tumours

• Tumours are formed when new cells are produced in a poorly regulated manner

• The extra cellular material puts pressure on the neurons disrupting function and possible leading to cell death

viral infections

• Viruses target cells in the brain

• E.g. Herpes Simplex Encephalitis

• E.g. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

Neurodegenerative disorders

• Increase in life expectancy brings about an increase in degenerative illnesses that affect the brain

• E.g. Alzheimer, Dementia, Parkinson’s disease

purpose of single case studies

• There are individual differences in case studies

• Observations from single case studies - many of the cases are rare so hard to generate a large sample 

• Can provide valid data to test and develop cognitive theories