ABSTRACT

Contemporary neuropsychology, in many respects, is very different than what it was prior to the advent of neuroimaging. The "early" days of clinical neuropsychology-circa 1930s through l970s-were accomplished without the aid of any in vivo brain imaging technique. Although introduced in the early 1970s, computerized tomography (CT) did not become widely used clinically until the middle or end of that decade. Furthermore, the quality of CT imaging did not reach today's standards until the computer advances ofthe early to mid-1980s. At that time, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was introduced. Today we have two exceptional in vivo brain imaging techniques-CT and MRthat permit exquisite and detailed viewing of the living human brain. In addition to these contemporary standards of brain imaging, a variety of other imaging methods are available. These include metabolic (positron emission tomography-PET -single photon emission computed tomography-SPECT) electrophysiological (computerized electroencephalographic-EEG-mapping), energy metabolism (NMR spectroscopy), and MR functional activation (see Raichle, l994a, l994b ). Each of these techniques has led to further understanding of brain-behavior relationships and is discussed in this chapter.