Alfonso Caramazza - Böcker

Originally published in 1990, the chapters in Cognitive Neuropsychology and Neurolinguistics emphasize the development of detailed models of normal cognitive functioning through the analysis of cognitive impairment. They differ, however, in terms of the cognitive domain investigated and the dominant methodology of the reported research. Areas examined include imagery, attention, memory, and language. A substantial portion of the papers presented address language processing because research on language disorders was a major focus of interest in cognitive neuropsychological research at the time. Today it can be read in its historical context.

The papers in the special issue describe computational models and principles that attempt to explain the performance of brain damaged subjects. The models elucidate the cognitive processes that underlie speaking, reading, spelling, and visuospatial planning by implementing hypothesized mechanisms and then identifying the consequences of specific "lesions" in these mechanisms for the model’s behaviour which, in turn, is related to the subjects’ behaviour. Although most of the presented models view cognitive mechanisms in connectionist or neural-network terms, they exhibit considerable variety in their underlying cognitive theories, their approach to modelling pathology, and particularly in how they use models to draw conclusions about theory.

Category-specific knowledge disorders are among the most intriguing and perplexing syndromes in cognitive neuropsychology. The past decade has witnessed increased interest in these disorders, due largely to a heightened appreciation of the profound implications that an understanding of concept representation has for such diverse topics as object recognition, the organisation of the lexicon, and storage of long-term memories. Until recently, information about the representation of concepts was limited to findings from patients with brain injury and disease. This state of affairs has now changed with the advent and wide-spread availability of functional imaging for studying cognition in the normal human brain. The purpose of this special issue is to provide a forum for new findings and critical, theoretical analyses of existing data from patient and functional brain imaging studies. The contributions, all from major investigators in the field, range from studies of specific object categories such as animals, tools, fruit and vegetables, and faces, to the more general domains of number processing, social interaction, and mechanical knowledge. A unifying theme of these papers is the extent to which the findings can be best understood within the context of models that posit an innate, domain-specific organisation, those that appeal to an organisation by sensory- and motor-based features and properties, and those that propose an undifferentiated, distributed neural organisation.

The papers in this volume consider the role of sensory-motor processes and their neural structures in higher cognitive functions such as visual and motor imagery, iconic memory and temporal judgment. The evidence brought to bear on this issue comes from behavioral studies of brain-damaged subjects and fMRI and TMS studies with normal subjects. The issue also includes several theoretical reviews and discussions.

The journal Cognitive Neuropsychology began publication in 1984. In 2004 a special symposium was held at the annual European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology at Bressanone to take stock of the developments in cognitive neuropsychology represented by the first twenty volumes of the journal, and this book is the result. In the book, prominent cognitive neuropsychologists provide state-of-the-art overviews of what cognitive neuropsychology has told us about the normal mechanisms of conceptual representation, spoken word production, the comprehension and construction of sentences, reading, spelling, memory, visual attention visual object recognition, and everyday action and planning. Key topics that are covered include computational cognitive neuropsychology, the relationship of cognitive neuropsychology to cognitive neuroscience, modularity, and the current status of such traditional features of cognitive neuropsychology as the rejection of group studies in favour of single case studies and the rejection of the study of syndromes in favour of the study of symptoms.

The papers in the special issue describe computational models and principles that attempt to explain the performance of brain damaged subjects. The models elucidate the cognitive processes that underlie speaking, reading, spelling, and visuospatial planning by implementing hypothesized mechanisms and then identifying the consequences of specific "lesions" in these mechanisms for the model’s behaviour which, in turn, is related to the subjects’ behaviour. Although most of the presented models view cognitive mechanisms in connectionist or neural-network terms, they exhibit considerable variety in their underlying cognitive theories, their approach to modelling pathology, and particularly in how they use models to draw conclusions about theory.

Category-specific knowledge disorders are among the most intriguing and perplexing syndromes in cognitive neuropsychology. The past decade has witnessed increased interest in these disorders, due largely to a heightened appreciation of the profound implications that an understanding of concept representation has for such diverse topics as object recognition, the organisation of the lexicon, and storage of long-term memories. Until recently, information about the representation of concepts was limited to findings from patients with brain injury and disease. This state of affairs has now changed with the advent and wide-spread availability of functional imaging for studying cognition in the normal human brain. The purpose of this special issue is to provide a forum for new findings and critical, theoretical analyses of existing data from patient and functional brain imaging studies. The contributions, all from major investigators in the field, range from studies of specific object categories such as animals, tools, fruit and vegetables, and faces, to the more general domains of number processing, social interaction, and mechanical knowledge. A unifying theme of these papers is the extent to which the findings can be best understood within the context of models that posit an innate, domain-specific organisation, those that appeal to an organisation by sensory- and motor-based features and properties, and those that propose an undifferentiated, distributed neural organisation.

The papers in this volume consider the role of sensory-motor processes and their neural structures in higher cognitive functions such as visual and motor imagery, iconic memory and temporal judgment. The evidence brought to bear on this issue comes from behavioral studies of brain-damaged subjects and fMRI and TMS studies with normal subjects. The issue also includes several theoretical reviews and discussions.