The Contribution of Patient Case Studies on our Understanding of Cognit

Although it shares cognitive neuroscience’s roots, cognitive neuropsychology has developed into a discrete discipline. While cognitive neuroscience studies neural organisation of the brain, cognitive neuropsychology concerns itself with the brain’s functional architecture; Coltheart (2010) describes this as a distinction between brain and mind. According to, among others, Coltheart (2002, cited Coltheart, 2010) this makes cognitive neuropsychology a branch of cognitive psychology rather than neuroscience. Patient case studies have played a critical role in developing cognitive neuropsychology into a separate discipline, although data from case studies can support and even progress cognitive neuroscientific findings about neural architecture. Cognitive neuroscientific research has identified dorsal and ventral visual pathways (e.g. Shapley, 1995, cited Pike and Edgar, 2010) in the brain, known respectively as the ‘where’ and the ‘what’ pathways. A case study of patient DF by Milner and Goodale (1995, cited Pike and Edgar, 2010) found impairment in face and object recognition and visual discrimination, suggesting damage to the ventral pathway. When asked to pick up a small disc, the width of which she could not judge, the distance between DF’s index finger and thumb correlated highly with the actual disc width, suggesting that she was able to guide action using size information unavailable to conscious report. Milner and Goodale went on to develop the ve ntral/dorsal dissociation theory by suggesting that the ventral ‘what’ pathway processes object recognition while the dorsal ‘where’ system drives action in relation to an object (Goodale and Milner, 1992; Milner and Goodale, 1995, both cited Pike and Edgar, 2010). Thus a patie... ...In Kaye, H. (Ed,), Methods Companion (2nd ed., pp. 59-102). Milton Keynes: The Open University. Patterson, K. And Plaut, D.C. (2009). ‘†Shallow Draughts Intoxicate the Brain†: Lessons from Cognitive Science for Cognitive Neuropsychology’, Topics in Cognitive Science, vol. 1 (1), pp.39-58. Pike, G. and Edgar, G. (2010). ‘Perception’. In Kaye, H. (Ed,), Cognitive Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 63-104). Milton Keynes: The Open University. Rutherford, A. (2010). ‘Long-term memory: encoding to retrieval’. In Kaye, H. (Ed,), Cognitive Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 63-104). Milton Keynes: The Open University. Wierenga, C.E., Maher, L.M., Moore, A., White, K.D., McGregor, K., Soltysik, D.A. and Crosson, B. (2006). ‘Neural substrates of syntactic mapping treatment: An fMRI study of two cases’, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, vol. 12(1), pp.132-146. The Contribution of Patient Case Studies on our Understanding of Cognit Although it shares cognitive neuroscience’s roots, cognitive neuropsychology has developed into a discrete discipline. While cognitive neuroscience studies neural organisation of the brain, cognitive neuropsychology concerns itself with the brain’s functional architecture; Coltheart (2010) describes this as a distinction between brain and mind. According to, among others, Coltheart (2002, cited Coltheart, 2010) this makes cognitive neuropsychology a branch of cognitive psychology rather than neuroscience. Patient case studies have played a critical role in developing cognitive neuropsychology into a separate discipline, although data from case studies can support and even progress cognitive neuroscientific findings about neural architecture. Cognitive neuroscientific research has identified dorsal and ventral visual pathways (e.g. Shapley, 1995, cited Pike and Edgar, 2010) in the brain, known respectively as the ‘where’ and the ‘what’ pathways. A case study of patient DF by Milner and Goodale (1995, cited Pike and Edgar, 2010) found impairment in face and object recognition and visual discrimination, suggesting damage to the ventral pathway. When asked to pick up a small disc, the width of which she could not judge, the distance between DF’s index finger and thumb correlated highly with the actual disc width, suggesting that she was able to guide action using size information unavailable to conscious report. Milner and Goodale went on to develop the ve ntral/dorsal dissociation theory by suggesting that the ventral ‘what’ pathway processes object recognition while the dorsal ‘where’ system drives action in relation to an object (Goodale and Milner, 1992; Milner and Goodale, 1995, both cited Pike and Edgar, 2010). Thus a patie... ...In Kaye, H. (Ed,), Methods Companion (2nd ed., pp. 59-102). Milton Keynes: The Open University. Patterson, K. And Plaut, D.C. (2009). ‘†Shallow Draughts Intoxicate the Brain†: Lessons from Cognitive Science for Cognitive Neuropsychology’, Topics in Cognitive Science, vol. 1 (1), pp.39-58. Pike, G. and Edgar, G. (2010). ‘Perception’. In Kaye, H. (Ed,), Cognitive Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 63-104). Milton Keynes: The Open University. Rutherford, A. (2010). ‘Long-term memory: encoding to retrieval’. In Kaye, H. (Ed,), Cognitive Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 63-104). Milton Keynes: The Open University. Wierenga, C.E., Maher, L.M., Moore, A., White, K.D., McGregor, K., Soltysik, D.A. and Crosson, B. (2006). ‘Neural substrates of syntactic mapping treatment: An fMRI study of two cases’, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, vol. 12(1), pp.132-146.