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- Pursues a historical-cultural, mediated, and systemic approach to cognition and its relevance for research on cognitive disorders
- Offers a comprehensive and detailed examination of study designs and influential variables to be controlled in the neuropsychological evaluation and included in multivariate statistical analysis
- Examines the critical analysis of methodological problems in areas that are currently the subject of intensive cognitive research
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 deta Table of ContentsPart I. Cognitive functions and their interrelationships.- 1. Introduction.-
- 2. Sensation and Perception.-
- 3. Attention.-
- 4. Memory.-
- 5. Language.-
- 6. Cognition as a mediated, self-organized, and dynamic activity.-
Part II. Historical-cultural origin of cognition.- 7. Evolutionary perspective.-
- 8. Ontogenetic perspective.-
- 9. Role of imitation and appropriation in the cognitive development.-
- 10. Acquisition of theory of mind, language, and social cognition.-
Part III. Neuropsychological Investigation: Methodological Issues.- 11. Systemic approach and the problem of reciprocal influences of mental functions on each other.-
- 12. Brain-behavioral correlations.-
- 13. Research methods and designs.-
Part IV. Fundamentals of Statistics applied to biomedical and psychological research.- 14. Elements of statistics: Basic concepts.-
- 15. Fundamentals of statistical analysis.-
- 16. Hypothesis testing.-
- 17. Choosing a statistical test.-
Part V. Methodological issues in research on selected conditions.- 18. Cognitive research on early multiple sclerosis.-
- 19. Temporal lobe epilepsy.-
- 20. Mild cognitive impairment and early dementia.
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