Advanced Neuropsychology
Week 1.......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Lecture 1 – Introduction.......................................................................................................................................2
Article – Anosognosia...........................................................................................................................................4
Article – Anterior nucleus of the thalamus...........................................................................................................4
Seminar 1 – First impression................................................................................................................................7
Week 2.......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Lecture 2 – Memory.............................................................................................................................................8
Article – Patient H.M..........................................................................................................................................14
Article – Hippocampal role in Spatial Memory..................................................................................................15
Week 3........................................................................................................................................................ 18
Lecture 3 – Language.........................................................................................................................................18
Article – Cortical organization of speech...........................................................................................................24
Article – Three variants of Primary Progressive Aphasia...................................................................................27
Week 4........................................................................................................................................................ 29
Lecture 4 – Attention..........................................................................................................................................29
Article – Revising unilateral neglect...................................................................................................................37
Article – Attention system of the human brain..................................................................................................43
Article – Neural Mechanisms of Selective Visual Attention...............................................................................47
Week 5........................................................................................................................................................ 49
Lecture 5 – Normal and pathological aging.......................................................................................................49
Article – Trajectories of normal cognitive aging................................................................................................56
Article – Cognitive reserve, brain reserve and brain maintenance....................................................................58
Article – Towards defined construct of Alzheimer.............................................................................................59
Week 6........................................................................................................................................................ 61
Lecture 6 – Social cognition................................................................................................................................61
Article – Studies of Urbach-Wiethe Disease.......................................................................................................66
Article – Building blocks of social cognition.......................................................................................................68
Article – Clinical assessment of social cognitive function in neurological disorders..........................................71
Week 7........................................................................................................................................................ 74
Lecture 7 – Executive functioning.......................................................................................................................74
Article – Unity and diversity of executive functions...........................................................................................78
Article – Executive functions..............................................................................................................................81
Week 8........................................................................................................................................................ 86
Lecture 8 – Perception........................................................................................................................................86
, Article – On Feeling and Reaching: Touch Action and Body Space....................................................................91
Week 9........................................................................................................................................................ 93
Lecture 9 – Case COVID-19.................................................................................................................................93
Article – Cognitive deficits in people who have recovered from COVID-19.......................................................97
Article – Cognitive impairment After COVID-19: a review.................................................................................98
Article – Training models and status of clinical neuropsychologists in Europe.................................................99
Week 1
Lecture 1 – Introduction
What is neuropsychology?
Neuropsychology is broad, it holds many concepts. Depending on what you have learned
before you will answer this question differently. According to Dominique Makowski:
We talk about neuropsychology when persons have acquired brain damage, however,
therefore we also need to know how a ‘normal’ functional brain is.
What do you do when you are a clinical neuropsychologist:
Diagnostic assessment
Assessment of current functioning
Pre-surgical assessment
Outcome assessment
Prognostication
Cognitive rehab
Promotion of coping etc.
Most of the research that we know today is found by accident. We search for something but
discover something else.
Visual agnosia: “I am looking with my mind’s eye.” Visual agnosia is an impairment in
recognition of visually presented objects. It is not due to a deficit in vision (acuity, visual
field, and scanning), language, memory, or intellect. While cortical blindness results from
lesions to primary visual cortex, visual agnosia is often due to damage to more anterior
2
,cortex such as the posterior occipital and/or temporal lobe(s) in the brain. There are two
types of visual agnosia: apperceptive agnosia and associative agnosia.
Recognition of visual objects occurs at two primary levels. At an apperceptive level, the
features of the visual information from the retina are put together to form a perceptual
representation of an object. At an associative level, the meaning of an object is attached to
the perceptual representation and the object is identified. If a person is unable to recognize
objects because they cannot perceive correct forms of the objects, although their knowledge
of the objects is intact (i.e., they do not have anomia), they have apperceptive agnosia. If a
person correctly perceives the forms and has knowledge of the objects, but cannot identify
the objects, they have associative agnosia.
Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.
You need to be able to have ethic discussions. Ethics only happens when you are with others
and is not the truth.
When you look at brain scans, it is important to look for symmetry (for example ventricles).
Optic chiasm transfers information from the eyes to the occipital lobes where it will be
transferred into information usable to interpret. In this specific case, optic chiasm does not
transfer images to the brain to process. You do not notice you do miss something when you
are missing something, only when you ask or make someone attend to it. Left anterior
nuclei of the thalamus had to be cut out, because of a bleeding during the operation. What
can we expect if we know when the anterior nucleus of the thalamus is removed? Look at
connections of the anterior nuclei of the thalamus.
3
, Article – Anosognosia
Anosognosia: lack of awareness of having a disorder or disability. It is used in the context of
neurological disorder and in relation to the main symptoms/deficits of a condition, including
motor, sensory, behavioral, and cognitive alterations.
Can also encompass the functional consequences of having a condition (e.g., impairments in
activities of daily live.
Discrepancy between patient self-report and an objective evaluation.
Ranges from minimalizing problems to complete denial. When explaining the problems are
more serious, some patients will increase awareness, but in others awareness is a more fixed
pattern.
People can be anosognosic about certain aspects of their disease or impairment while
showing full awareness of other features of their condition – specificity of anosognosia.
There are also cases reported in which there is a dissociation between verbal report and
adapted behavior.
Anosodiaphoria: apathy or lack of concern regarding a condition. Some overlap with
anosognosia, with people who are unaware of their deficits often presenting with diminished
emotional responses toward them.
Impaired awareness may be accompanied by preserved emotional reactivity to deficit or
symptom.
Anosognosia has a neurobiological basis, being associated with damage to certain brain
areas. Cultural values, premorbid personality and beliefs, mood state all affect the degree of
anosognosia.
Article – Anterior nucleus of the thalamus
Anterior nucleus of the thalamus (ANT) is a key component of the hippocampal system for
episodic memory.
Consist of 3 subnuclei:
- Anteroventral nuclei largest nucleus of ANTS and contains larger proportion of
GABAergic neurons.
- Anterodorsal nuclei
- Anteromedial nuclei
ANT nuclei have distinct connectivity with the subicular cortex, retrosplenial cortex and
mammillary bodies.
Via connections with anterior cingulate and orbitomedial prefrontal cortex, the ANT also
contributes to reciprocal hippocampal-prefrontal interactions involved in emotional and
executive functions. Further, ANT neurons contribute to theta rhythm, important for
synaptic plasticity of hippocampal circuit.
Damage to ANTs neurons is responsible for episodic memory deficits observed in Wernicke
Korsakoff syndrome and thalamic stroke.
4
