The Neuropsychology of Old Age: Concepts and Applied Aspects

Neuropsychology entered a new phase of development in the early '70s when it expanded beyond the bounds of local brain pathology in the narrow sense. Even while A.R. Luria was still alive, quite diffuse cerebrovascular disorders, parkinsonism, head injury, inflammatory processes, etc., came to be used as clinical models for study of the cerebral substrates of higher mental functions. The neuropsychological method has by now demonstrated its extraordinary sensitivity in terms of assessment of the distinctive features of mental activity—not just in functional disorders in specific cerebral zones but also in various abnormal changes in the functional state of the brain secondary to extensive brain damage. During that same period, developmental neuropsychology also evolved, on the basis of research on the genesis of cerebral morphofunctional organs of mental activity in childhood.