Research on Cognition Disorders

Research on cognitive disorders is challenging due to the complexity of functions and numerous variables involved. The main purpose of this book is to effectively address the methodological issues and controversies in cognitive disorders research. First, it reviews the concept of human cognition as a complex activity involving interconnected mental and cerebral processes (its systemic structure), which represent the natural and social-cultural world by means of signs (its mediated, semiotic nature) and result from the internalization (or appropriation by the individual) of external actions and relations with things and persons (its cultural-historical origin).

Subsequently, methodological issues are examined, including the use of the systemic and network approach in neuropsychological research, the concepts of single and double dissociation, single-case versus group studies, problems of brain-behavioral correlations using the lesion method and functional neuroimaging, the influence of task-relevant variables (confounders) related to the patient (e.g., age, education), to the lesion (size, etiology), and to the tests and testing conditions (ecological validity, examiner´s experience). Finally, readers are given the fundamentals of statistics applied to biomedical and psychological research, with illustrative examples of how to calculate Z score, effect size, χ2 test, t test, Pearson´s correlation coefficient, and simple linear regression. Methodological problems in current cognitive research on early multiple sclerosis, medial temporal lobe epilepsy, mild cognitive impairment and dementia are examined in detail.

• cognition as neurofuctional network
• confounders in cognitive research
• cultural aspects of cognition
• degenerative brain disease research
• epilepsy research
• language and cognition
• meethods in neuropsychology
• methodology for mild cognitive and dementia research
• methodology for multiple sclerosis research
• methodology for temporal lobe epilepsy research
• methodology of cognition research
• neurocognitive disorder research
• neuropsychological assessment
• neuropsychological research methodology
• neuropsychological tests
• research on brain localization of clinical syndromes
• single and double dissociations

• Department of Neurology, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil

  Benito Damasceno

Benito Pereira Damasceno, M.D., has been a full professor of neurology in the Department of Neurology, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil, since 2006, after being assistant professor and coordinator of the neuropsychology and neurolinguistics unit since 1986. He served as head of the neurology department from 1994 to 1998 and from 2006 to 2008. He has served as reviewer of international journals as Epilepsia, International Psychogeriatrics, Cerebral Cortex, PlosOne, Arquivos de Neuropsiquiatria, Dementia & Neuropsychologia, and Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, and has published more than 105 articles in international peer-reviewed journals. His main areas of research are Alzheimer´s dementia, multiple sclerosis, aphasias, theory of mind, memory, and epilepsy neuropsychological evaluation.

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