Neuropsychology

 NEUROPSYCHOLOGY ONLINE COURSE

Until the late 1800’s, scientists did not know if the nervous system was made up vast networks of connected nerve cells, or whether the cells were separate. We now know that they are, and that they carry out their enormous task of keeping the body alive and functioning, and our minds working, by means of chains of action. The human brain is estimated to have around 100 billion nerve cells working to help create apparently seamless and integrated action, thought, and body function. To understand how they interact, we must learn about their individual structure and behaviours.

Develop your understanding of the way a person’s psychology is affected by anatomical and physiological characteristics of that person’s neurological system.

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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
5. 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
   • Emotions research.
6. Perception Disorders
   • Hemispatial neglect
   • Causes of hemispatial neglect
   • Auditory perceptual disorder
   • Agnosia
   • Visual agnosia
   • Types of visual agnosia
   • Prosopagnosia
   • Simultanagnosia
   • Optic aphasia
   • Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder.
7. 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,
8. Language
   • Broca’s area
   • Wernicke’s area
   • Speech
   • Language
   • Speech and language disorders
   • Apraxia
   • Aphasia
   • Stuttering
   • Neurogenic stuttering
   • Troyer syndrome
   • Speech disorders.
9. 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,
10. Neurodevelopment
    • Major processes of neurodevelopment
    • Neurogenesis
    • Migration
    • Differentiation
    • Apoptosis
    • Aborisation
    • Synaptogenesis
    • Asperger Syndrome
    • Neuroplasticity and brain damage.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

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 -  

     - Brainstem
     - 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.

EXTRACT FROM COURSE NOTES     NEUROTRANSMITTERS

Neurotransmitters are chemicals synthesised by a neuron from blood, and released by a neuron to transmit a message to another neuron, muscle or gland cell. Some neurotransmitters are synthesised in the presynaptic terminal, but others are synthesized in the soma and transported to the terminal thought the axon, in which case, the supply can be exhausted and it may take hours or days to replenish the supply. It seems that neurons release a limited number of neurotransmitters, and only in certain combinations, from their axons. However, a neuron might receive a number of different neurotransmitters at different synapses.

When a neuron sends a signal, synaptic vesicles in the terminal button of the neuron move toward the presynaptic membrane. Some of these stick to the membrane, then break open, releasing neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft. Some of these neurotransmitters then bind with special protein molecules in the postsynaptic membrane. These proteins are called receptors. The neurotransmitter molecules separate from the receptors and may be converted into inactive chemicals. Sometimes, the molecules are recycled back into the presynaptic cell.

Receptors are only activated by the appropriate neurotransmitters. When the neurotransmitter binds with the receptor, there is a change in both the chemical structure and electrical balance in the postsynaptic neuron, producing a graded potential. The affect of the neurotransmitter will vary according to the receptor it fits with.

Each neurotransmitter is able to activate any of a number of different receptors, to produce any of a number of different effects:

a. Excitatory neurotransmitters excite the neuron by depolarizing the postsynaptic cell membrane;

b. Inhibitory neurotransmitters inhibit neural firing by hyperpolarizing the membrane.

ADDITIONAL COURSES

You may also be interested in how the human mind works – the following courses may be of particular interest –

http://www.acsedu.com/Courses/product.aspx?id=359 Introduction to Psychology

http://www.acsedu.com/Courses/product.aspx?id=397 Biopsychology I

http://www.acsedu.com/Courses/product.aspx?id=488 Biopsychology II

http://www.acsedu.com/Courses/product.aspx?id=480 Psychopharmacology (Drugs and Psychology)

USEFUL RESOURCES

Our bookshop offers a range of counseling and psychology courses which you may find useful. You can see our range of books at –

http://www.acsbookshop.com/books_productcategory.aspx?id=14

Not sure whether counseling is the right career for you or if you would like to know more. You can find out more about careers in psychology and counseling at - http://www.thecareersguide.com/articles.aspx?category=14