Neuropsychological Assessment

1
Neuropsychological Assessment

• Original practical purpose detecting
  localizing physical brain ailments
• Now used more to assess functional strengths
  weaknesses, owing primarily to advances in
  neuroimaging

2
By Locale Function

• Verbal (mostly left hemisphere)
• Comprehension (mostly temporofrontal)
• Production (mostly temporal)
• Non-verbal auditory (rhythm, pitch)
• Visuospatial (mostly right hemisphere,
  occipito-parietal)
• Attention/Vigilance

3
Locale/Function, contd

• Memory (working/short-term/long-term, procedural,
  semantic, recent/remote, recognition/recall,
  auditory/verbal/ visuospatial)
• Praxis (e.g., performing commands)
• Judgment, impulse management, goal direction
• Various other

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Dysfunctions Looked For, or Potential Causes

• Amnesia, memory deficits (dementias)
• Working memory (e.g., delayed spatial working
  memory tasks, Digit Span Reversed)frontal lobe
  lesions
• Short-term memory (verbal, auditory, visual,
  etc.Memory for Designs, Digit Span)malnutrition-
  induced neuronal death

5
Memory Deficits, contd

• Long-term semantic memory (e.g., name former but
  relatively recent presidents)
• Long-term biographical memory (e.g., remember
  your wedding date)

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Memory Deficits, contd

• Short-term procedural memory (e.g., carry out a
  just-given, novel command)
• Long-term procedural memory (e.g., cook dinner
  from ingredients, park a car)

7
Dysfunctions, contd

• Aphasia (problems understanding or producing
  language)strokes/vascular problems, some tumors
• Productive (nonfluent/Brocas, global aphasias)
• Receptive (fluent/Wernickes, global aphasias)
• Other (unusual) types
• Assessed by specialized aphasia screening
  batteries

8
Language-Related Problems

• Alexia, dyslexia (absent/defective
  reading)problems with graphemes, phonemes,
  lexemes
• Agraphia (cant write words/sentences, etc.)
• Acalculia (cant do arithmetic)

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Dysfunctions, contd

• Apraxia (problems with doing things) (strokes)
• Agnosia (problems with knowing) (e.g., strokes
  causing prosopagnosiatrouble recognizing faces)

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Frontal Lobe Tests

• Working memory tasks
• Vigiliance tasks (Continuous Performance Tests)
• Category learning (e.g., Wisconsin Card Sorting
  Test)ability to establish, maintain, shift set
  (inhibit responses appropriate to old set)
• Anti-saccade eye movement task (inhibiting highly
  prepotent responses)
• Tests of judgment (esp. social judgment)
• Nonfluent aphasia-detecting tests

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Temporal Lobe Tests

• Fluent aphasia-detecting tests
• Memory, esp. short-term verbal/lexical
• Attention (e.g., ability to ignore distraction),
  binaural auditory stimuli
• Non-language auditory stimulus processing (e.g.,
  music, Seashore Rhythm Tests)
• Face recognition (temporo-parietal)

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Parieto-Occipital Tests

• Production of novel designs (Figure Fluency)
• Reproduction of designs (Ray-Osterreith, Benton
  Visual Retention TestBVRT)
• Memory for designs (BVRT)
• Figure/ground discrimination
• Recognition of faces (temporo-parietal)