Assessment and Rehabilitation of Brain Processes

The present course will provide an overview of clinical neuropsychology, a specialty focused on the understanding the brain-behavior relationships particularly as these relationships can be applied to the diagnosis and assessment of cognitive and behavioral dysfunctions as well as to their differential diagnosis. The introductory session will delineate the role and the main aims of a clinical neuropsychologist as well as the tools that must be mastered in the clinical practice. The adopted theoretical framework concerns the assessment of neurocognitive disorders according to the DSM-5, which includes the exploration of the six cognitive domains: complex attention, executive functions, learning and memory, perceptual-motor, language, and social cognition. The most commonly used neuropsychological scales/tests will be presented. Moreover, this course will cover the general aspect of the neuropsychological rehabilitation of cognitive disorders. With a clinician-researchers prospective, students will experience how to plan a tailored rehabilitation program which integrates scientific evidence-clinical experience and patients’ needs. The overall objective of this course is to provide an “how to do” lectures for beginners, showing how to handle clinical neuropsychological topics in daily work.