Before knowing about this branch of psychology, it is important to know what the neurosciences are, since neuropsychology is just that, a science devoted to the nervous system .

Neurosciences, as its name indicates, is a discipline that includes many sciences, which are responsible for studying the nervous system from different points of view, thus contributing to a better understanding and comprehension of it: we talk about neurology, psychology, biology, chemistry, pharmacology, genetics, among others.

What is Neuropsychology?

Having understood the above, it is now appropriate to ask ourselves, what then is neuropsychology? It is a neuroscience whose main objective is the study of the brain and the relationship between this organ and the behaviour of people . It is interested in studying both healthy people and those who have suffered some brain damage.

Main characteristics

These are the aspects that characterize neuropsychology.

1. Neuroscientific character

As already mentioned, is a behavioural neuroscience that relies on the natural scientific method to study the brain, it is assisted by the hypothetical-deductive procedure (it elaborates a hypothesis, and then discards or corroborates it, this depending on the results that exist after the experimentation) and sometimes by the analytical-inductive one (it carries out experiments, so that it can test the functional relationship between different controlled variables).

2. Study of higher mental functions

He is interested in studying the neural bases of any human being , and how these correlate with diverse mental processes such as: thought, executive functions, language, memory, motor skills, perception, etc.

3. has a strong interest in the associative cerebral cortex

Neuropsychology cares very much about this cortex for two specific reasons. The first is because this area of the brain has as its main responsibility all the higher cognitive processes . And the second is because it is unfortunately one of the parts that tends to be most affected when there is an illness or disorder; resulting then in very diverse damage to the mental functions already mentioned.

Although it is not the only area that can lead to this, affectations to the corpus callosum, basal ganglia, hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus and cerebellum also trigger in the deterioration of the cognitive and emotional.

4. Studies adverse effects arising from brain injury

The following must be made clear: neuropsychology and clinical neuropsychology are not the same thing . The former focuses on studying the brain-behaviour relationship in healthy subjects, and to a certain extent it can be understood and seen as cognitive neuroscience. And the second deals only with those people who acquire some damage to their nervous system and disorders derived from it: aphasias, amnesias, apraxia, agnosia, etc.

5. Focuses solely and exclusively on the human being

Just as there is “human” neuropsychology, so to speak, there is also neuropsychology that is interested in the brain-behaviour relationship of other mammal species, each one has its own field, its own specificity.

It should be noted that there are notable differences between the two, one of which is the fact that the cognitive processes of humans are very different at a qualitative and quantitative level from those of animals; for example, the proportion and extent in the neocortex of some animals differs greatly from that of man.

The knowledge that can be acquired from both species also goes in different directions, it is not possible for example to induce experimental lesions of the nervous system in people (only in rare cases where there is therapeutic neurosurgery). That is why psychophysiological research with animals has been valuable to understand in a certain way some basic processes of human beings, but in no way is it the same, total generalizations cannot be established between what happens with them and us, so as mentioned above, there are notable differences between one nervous system and another.

6. Interdisciplinary

Neuropsychology was born as an autonomous entity thanks to the contributions and work of many other disciplines such as neurology, biology, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, experimental psychology, pharmacology, cognitive psychology, among others.

This interdisciplinary character also goes in the sense that clinical neuropsychologists work hand in hand with other health professionals in the assessment and treatment of brain damage: neurologists, neurosurgeons, physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, etc.

Bibliographic references:

  • Antonio, P. P. (2010). Introduction to Neuropsychology. Madrid: McGraw-Hill.