Neuropsychology

• Human brain


  • Composed of three main parts: the cerebrum, the brainstem, and the cerebellum
• Parts of the cerebrum

  • Frontal lobe
  • Temporal lobe
  • Occipital lobe
  • Parietal lobe
• Frontal lobe

  Located in front of the brain, directly behind the forehead. Controls voluntary movement, thinking, decision-making, planning, and judgement
• Temporal lobe


  Located on either side of the head right behind the temple. Uses sensory information to understand and respond to the environment, plays a role in language understanding, memory access, language use, and information processing
• Occipital lobe


  Located at the back of the head. Processes visual information from the eye
• Parietal lobe


  Located at the top of the head. Important for understanding environments, interpreting bodily sensations, and understanding spatial relationships
• Main function of the lobes

  1. Frontal lobe: Responsible for voluntary movements, communication, executive functions, emotions, behaviors, and personality

  2. Temporal lobe: Useful for language, memory, sense abilities, memory-related functions, language identification, emotion processing, sensory signal processing, visual recognition

  3. Occipital lobe: Processes visual information from the eye

  4. Parietal lobe: Important for sensory perception including taste, touch, smell, hearing
• The frontal lobe is the most common region of injury
• The occipital lobe is the smallest lobe
• Visual information travels through the occipital track, areas of the brain, and reaches the occipital lobe


  The occipital lobe processes that information and turns it into something that the rest of the brain can use
• Parietal Lobe functions

  • Sensory perception including taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight
  • Self-perception
  • Sensory Integration
  • Learned movement
  • Location awareness
• Acquired brain injury symptoms to the parietal lobe include difficulty recognising left and right, spatial disorientation, inability to focus visual attention, alexia, dyscalculia, agraphia
• Frontal Lobe functions

  • Motor weakness, behavioural problems
  • Paralysis on one or both sides of the body
  • Difficulty problem solving or carrying out tasks
  • Short attention span
  • Impulsive/Risky Behaviours
  • Personality Changes
• Temporal Lobe functions

  • Processing and remembering visual information, understanding speech and language, understanding and regulating emotions
  • Memory Problem
  • Change in comprehending language and/or language expression
  • Vision Changes
  • Certain types of amnesia
• Occipital Lobe functions


  • Visual perception including colours, form, and motion
  • Visual illusion
  • Word blindness
  • Movement agnosia
  • Difficulty reading and writing
• Frontal lobe damage symptoms include motor weakness, behavioural problems, paralysis, difficulty problem solving, short attention span, impulsive/risky behaviours, personality changes
• Temporal lobe damage symptoms include memory problems, language comprehension issues, vision changes, certain types of amnesia
• Occipital lobe damage symptoms include visual illusion, word blindness, movement agnosia, difficulty reading and writing
• Damage causes to the occipital lobe

  • Vascular insult, neoplastic lesion, infections, seizures
• Damage causes to the parietal lobe

  • Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, strokes, schizophrenia, traumatic brain injuries
• Study example related to the parietal lobe

  • Case Study: Phineas Gage - a railroad worker who survived a traumatic brain injury caused by an iron rod
• Phineas Gage was a railroad worker well known for surviving a traumatic brain injury caused by an iron rod that shot through his skull and destroyed a large section of his frontal lobe
• The iron rod entered below his left cheekbone and exited from the top of his skull
• Phineas Gage was not conscious and was able to talk right after his accident, but 10 days later he was barely conscious
• Phineas Gage's doctors believed he was going to die, but he survived and within a month was able to go back to work without motor or speech impairments
• After the accident, Phineas Gage's personality changed, and he was no longer the same person according to his peers
• Twelve years after the accident, Phineas Gage died due to an epileptic seizure
• K.S., a 40-year-old woman, had severe memory loss for people following temporal lobe damage
• K.S. had a history of epilepsy and right anterior temporal lobectomy
• Despite memory loss, K.S. is not clinically amnesic and her memory loss extends beyond people to include famous animals, buildings, and product names
• K.S.'s autobiographical memory is good except for people
• A 65-year-old man presented an acute ischemic stroke involving the right occipital lobe, resulting in complex visual hallucinations in the left eye
• The hallucinations did not involve loss of consciousness or delusions and lasted for less than a month
• Patients with left parietal lobe damage struggle with the repetition of another's speech, known as conduction aphasia
• Conduction aphasia is associated with damage to the left arcuate fasciculus, a white matter bundle connecting the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and parietal lobe
• Research involving stroke patients showed that damage to the left parietal lobe can cause impaired speech repetition