We will start this post with a practical case that we will call "The man who does not recognize".
It is about a middle-aged person who comes to a consultation in general medicine and reports that he can see the person in front of him but does not recognize him (and it is his daughter).
And he goes further, he tells us that he is able to hear the song on his car radio that was playing while he was driving to the consultation but that he does not recognize it despite the fact that his daughter tells him that it is his favorite song for years. What happens here? Who is in charge of evaluating this person?
Although medicine will do tests to rule out neurological conditions (tumors, stroke, ECT, etc.), it is a case of the field of Neuropsychology.
Just as Psychology is the science that studies mental processes, sensations, perceptions and especially the behavior of the human being, Neuropsychology is in charge of studying the neurobiological bases giving meaning to said behavior and to the higher mental processes of a specific, healthy person and / or with pathologies.
Neuropsychology is considered a specialty of Psychology with own body and that, in turn, contributes to other disciplines such as Neuroscience, understood as the set of sciences whose common objective is the study of the nervous system (NS).
At present, the practice of Neuropsychology is booming because it is dedicated to integrating the functioning of the NS with that of the cognitive domains and specific behaviors of the human being.
Returning to the case of the "man who does not recognize" and knowing what the objective of Neuropsychology is, it is obvious that it would be the task of the Neuropsychologist to evaluate the aptitudes of this patient until reaching the conclusion that he has a visual and auditory perception impairment that has little to do with the functioning of their physical systems.
That is, the patient will not have problems in his visual organs such as the retina, but in the brain areas dedicated to visual perception..
Based on this, we understand that the neuropsychologist is the professional who is in charge of evaluating and applying a treatment to patients whose behaviors and cognitive domains become dysfunctional after a brain condition.
Although it seems simple, Neuropsychology in practice is a complex task and requires the acquisition of knowledge of higher domains (cognitive, motor and sensory) and especially of the neurobiological bases that give rise to these, by the professional who exercises it.
The specialty of Neuropsychology can be studied from different perspectives, the most effective being, due to its comprehensive nature, the one that delves into the neurobiological bases of each of the higher domains integrating basic knowledge (eg, biological bases of perception) with applied knowledge (eg, neuropsychological evaluation of motor disorders).
This is how it is possible to combine neuroanatomical areas and brain pathways that are the basis of the cognitive domains (memory, attention, language, among others), voluntary motor behaviors (eg, planned gait) and sensory (eg, the sensation of pain) that make up being human.
In this line we work from the master's degree Online Officer in Clinical Neuropsychology from the International University of Valencia. Specifically, the subjects of this postgraduate degree have been configured in such a way that each of them is intended for a domain (cognitive, motor and / or perceptual) and, in addition, includes both branches of Neuropsychology: basic and applied.
Likewise, this relationship between the neurobiological base and higher mental processes is not only reflected in the Master's Degree, but the International University of Valencia is committed to research in Neuropsychology, welcoming and supporting the projects proposed by research groups destined for such work, as the Research Group in Psychology and Quality of Life (PsiCal), led by Dra. Sara Puig.
Maria José García Rubio
Adjunct Professor of the Official Virtual Master's Degree in Clinical Neuropsychology at the International University of Valencia - VIU
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