The Brain & Behaviour

Neuropsychology is a specialist area of psychology. It is relevant to people who seek a more in-depth understanding of the brain and how damage through congenital conditions, injury, disease or disorders can affect its functioning and behaviour.

Develop your understanding of brain damage.

• Learn more about the function and structure of the brain and how it affects people’s psychological functioning.
• Find out about brain lateralisation, brain physiology, and neuroanatomy.
• See what happens when things go wrong: callosal syndrome, personality change, perception disorders, and motor disorders.
• Study in your own home and at your own pace. The course requires approximately 100 hours of study.

The course is useful for anyone interested in the brain and body interaction, or anyone working within the health or psychology field.

PRE-REQUISITES – A basic understanding of human biology is desirable, though not essential.

EXAMPLES OF WHAT YOU MAY DO IN THIS COURSE

• Learn about the development of Neuropsychology and techniques used in human neuropsychological studies;
• Describe the Neuroanatomy of –
  -Brain stem
  -Cerebellum and cerebral cortex
  -Organisation of the cerebral cortex
  -Cranial nerves , brain covering, ventricular system, arteries
  -Brain malfunction
  -Visual system
  -Other systems;
• Determine why there is laterality;
• Discuss callosal syndrome;
• Discuss and compare theories of frontal lobe function;
• Contrast normal aspects and abnormal aspects of emotion from a neuropsychological perspective;
• Develop a diagnostic table of perceptual disorders;
• Determine how the brain perceives faces;
• Discuss language formation;
• Describe language disorders;
• Develop a table of kind of dementia;
•  Learn how recovery of function is affected across age spans.

Course Structure & Content:

There are ten lessons in this module as follows:

Foundations of Neuropsychology

What is neuropsychology? The Information Processing Approach.  Studying the human mind, techniques used, brain scans, animal studies, methods of investigating the brain, psychological tests, Stroop test.

Neurophysiology

Neurons, parts of a neuron, neurotransmitters, effects of neurotransmitters, neurotransmitters and their effects, endorphins, disorders associated with neurotransmitters, glia cells, Schwann cells, nerve impulse, synaptic transmission, nerve impulse, neuromuscular transmission.

Neuroanatomy

The nervous system, parts of the central nervous system, the brain, the spinal cord, spinal nerves, blood brain barrier, peripheral nervous system, autonomic nervous system, sensory somatic nervous system, spinal nerves, cranial nerves, how the nervous system works (a summary), problems with brain functioning, cerebral palsy, brain tumours, injuries to the head, epilepsy, headaches, mental illness, meningitis, and encephalitis.

Laterality and Callosal Syndromes

Brain lateralisation, left handedness, cognitive neuropsychology, callosal syndrome, complete severance, split brain, complete severance, split brain syndrome, lobotomy, psychosurgery, Dual brain theory.

Cognition, Personality and Emotion

Brain damage, emotion and moods, Phineas Gage, brain damage and emotion, frontal lobe, higher level functioning, the Limbic system, neurotransmitters, neuropsychology, and emotions research.

Perception Disorders

Hemi spatial neglect causes of hemi spatial neglect, auditory perceptual disorder, agnosia, visual agnosia, types of visual agnosia, prosopagnosia, simultanagnosia, optic aphasia, hallucinogen persisting perception disorder.

Motor Disorders

Parkinson’s Disease, motor disorders resulting from traumatic brain injury, non-traumatic and/or genetic paediatric movement disorders, cerebral palsy, motor conditions, Gerstmann’s Syndrome, apraxia, motor skills disorder, motion dyspraxia, neural transplants and Parkinson’s Disease, gene therapy, how does gene therapy work, ethical issues surrounding gene therapy,

Language

Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, speech, language, speech and language disorders, apraxia, aphasia, stuttering, neurogenic stuttering, Troyer syndrome, speech disorders.

Dementia

Kinds of dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, Vascular Dementia, Multi-infarct Dementia, Parkinson’s Disease, Pick’s Disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Huntingdon’s Disease, Pseudo-Dementia, spotting dementia and other conditions,

Neurodevelopment

Major processes of neurodevelopment, neurogenesis, migration, differentiation, apoptosis, arborisation, synaptogenesis, Asperger Syndrome, neuroplasticity, and brain damage.

The Brain & Behaviour

Neuropsychology is a specialist area of psychology. It is relevant to people who seek a more in-depth understanding of the brain and how damage through congenital conditions, injury, disease or disorders can affect its functioning and behaviour.

Develop your understanding of brain damage.

• Learn more about the function and structure of the brain and how it affects people’s psychological functioning.
• Find out about brain lateralisation, brain physiology, and neuroanatomy.
• See what happens when things go wrong: callosal syndrome, personality change, perception disorders, and motor disorders.
• Study in your own home and at your own pace. The course requires approximately 100 hours of study.

The course is useful for anyone interested in the brain and body interaction, or anyone working within the health or psychology field.

Why Study This Course?

The course doesn’t cover how to undertake psychological testing of neuropsychological problems, but it does provide students with a solid grounding in brain dysfunctions.

This course will mainly appeal to people working in:

• Psychology
• Psychotherapy
• Biological sciences
• Health sciences
• Psychiatric nursing
• Health professions
• Teaching
• Research