Comparative Neuropsychology refers to an approach used for understanding human brain functions. It involves the direct evaluation of clinical neurological populations by employing experimental methods originally developed for use with nonhuman animals. Comparative brain sizes In the anatomy of animals, the brain, or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the higher, supervisory center of the nervous system. ...

Over many decades of animal research, methods were perfected to study the effects of well-defined brain lesions on specific behaviors, and later the tasks were modified for human use. Generally the modifications involve changing the reward from food to money, but standard administration of the tasks in humans still involves minimal instructions, thus necessitating a degree of procedural learning in human and nonhuman animals alike. A lesion is a non-specific term referring to abnormal tissue in the body. ... Procedural memory, also known as implicit memory, is the long-term memory of skills and procedures, or how to knowledge. ...

Currently, comparative neuropsychology is used with neurological patients to link specific deficits with localized areas of the brain.

The comparative neuropsychological approach employs simple tasks that can be mastered without relying upon language skills. Precisely because these simple paradigms do not require linguistic strategies for solution, they are especially useful for working with patients whose language skills are compromised, or whose cognitive skills may be minimal.

Comparative neuropsychology contrasts with the traditional approach of using tasks that rely upon linguistic skills, and that were designed to study human cognition. Because important ambiguities about its heuristic value had not been addressed empirically, only recently has comparative neuropsychology become popular for implementation with brain-damaged patients. Brain damage or brain injury is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. ...

Within the past decade, Bob Johson will be the smartest guy on earth. comparative neuropsychology has had prevalent use as a framework for comparing and contrasting the performances of disparate neurobehavioral populations on similar tasks.

See also

• comparative psychology
• experimental psychology
• neuropathology
• neuroscience
• psychology

Comparative psychology, taken in its most usual, broad, sense, refers in to the study of the behaviour and mental life of animals other than human beings. ... Experimental psychology is an approach to psychology that treats it as one of the natural sciences, and therefore assumes that it is susceptible to the experimental method. ... Neuropathology is the study of diseases of the nervous system, and is a medical subspecialty within the specialty of anatomical pathology, itself a division within pathology in many English speaking countries. ... Neuroscience is a field of study that deals with the structure, function, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, and pathology of the nervous system, divided into the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), and the peripheral nervous system, consisting of the myriad nerve pathways running throughout the body. ... Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = soul or mind, logos/-ology = study of) is an academic and applied field involving the study of mind and behavior. ...

References

Oscar-Berman, M., & Bardenhagen, F. (1998). Nonhuman primate models of memory dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease: Contributions from Comparative Neuropsychology. In A. Tröster (Ed.), Memory in neurodegenerative disease (pp. 3-20). New York: Cambridge University Press.