ABSTRACT
Cognitive and experimental neuropsychology illustrate the enormous growth and rapid expansion of neuroscience over the past decades. As illustrated by several chapters of Neuropsychological Research, clinical neuropsychological observations have for many years been a solid and unique source of information to improve our understanding of the neural basis of cognitive functions. This state of affairs has considerably changed in the last decades as neuroscience has implemented new scientific methods in the interdisciplinary approach to cognitive processing and its underlying neural substrates. This neurocognitive revolution has led to significant developments in the theoretical modelling of cognitive functions in normal subjects. At the same time, modern functional neuroimaging techniques have provided a range of new opportunities for the investigation of brain activity in normal subjects engaged in cognitive tasks. These recent advances, combined with major developments in the field of neurophysiology and experimental psychology, have played a crucial role in the establishment of a new and important field of investigation called cognitive neuroscience. The increasing body of new theoretical knowledge must be confronted, critically evaluated and integrated with the evidence from clinical neuropsychological observations and assessments. The authors of the various chapters have outlined how the present insights were arrived at by means of such an integrated, multidisciplinary approach. Many of the contributing authors of Neuropsychological Researchhave personally witnessed a number of substantial changes in the basic approach to neurocognitive issues: from the anatomoclinical method in times that may seem remote to the reader to the present application of modern and advanced brain-imaging techniques. Likewise, many of the contributing authors of Neuropsychological Research have been engaged in the development of cognitive theories. Apart from exciting technical innovations for measuring brain activity, the cognitive neuropsychological approach has replaced the traditional, taxonomic, neurological level of description of brain (dys)functions during the last decades. The cognitive neuro-psychological approach emerged in the second half of the last century and reflects the important developments in the fields of cognitive psychology and cognitive science. In its approach to the study of cognitive disorders, cognitive neuropsychology is based on a careful analysis of the quantitative and qualitative aspects of cognitive impairments in individual patients. The results of this analysis are interpreted on the basis of models of normal processing, derived from experimental investigations in normal subjects. The main goal of this approach is theoretical, rather than clinical; that is, it is the refinement of the understanding of the normal functional architecture of cognition. However, as demonstrated in Neuropsychological Research, improved knowledge in “cognitive physiology” may provide a robust rationale for the development of new treatment strategies in rehabilitation settings from which patients with neurological damage should ultimately benefit.
