Tatiana G. Wiesel: "Fundamentals of Neuropsychology"

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

One of the fundamental features of the development of modern fundamental research about man is the development of areas at the intersection of sciences that were once considered incompatible. The book by Tatyana Grigoryevna Wiesel "Fundamentals of Neuropsychology" is devoted to the basic concepts of science, equally related to neurology and psychology. The basis of science was laid by a world-famous Russian scientist, a colleague of Lev Semenovich Vygotsky - Alexander Romanovich Luria. In line with these studies, methods are being developed that allow linking brain function with diseases related to speech, praxis (actions) and gnosis (recognition). Scientists draw conclusions about how violations of specific areas of the brain affect the mental activity of a person and his psychology.

Practitioner Focused

The textbook by T. G. Wiesel "Fundamentals of Neuropsychology" is primarily valuable because it is based on the rich and versatile clinical experience of the author and is addressed to specialists who work directly withviolations. However, the publication will be of interest not only to speech therapists, rehabilitation specialists, neurologists, speech pathologists and pediatricians, but also to anyone interested in the problems of human psychology, in particular, teachers and linguists.

Book structure

The composition of the book is such that the reader can use the textbook as a reference on individual issues, or read from beginning to end, gradually plunging into the problems.

The first part of T. G. Wiesel's textbook "Fundamentals of Neuropsychology" is devoted to normal neuropsychology, the second part is about disorders, and the third part deals with issues of correction and recovery.

Normal neuropsychology

In the first part of the book "Fundamentals of Neuropsychology" by T. G. Wiesel, such important concepts for all specialists in the humanities, psychologists and doctors as speech, symbolic non-speech activity, gnosis and praxis are considered in detail.

The author talks about the types of gnosis (visual, auditory, tactile) and their development. A more detailed classification is also given. So, visual gnosis is divided into object, color, facial (the ability to recognize faces and distinguish them) and simultaneous (the ability to perceive, "read" the image, the plot as a whole). The essence of the difference between the types of gnosis from each other is clarified. For example, auditory gnosis is the perception and recognition of successively incoming stimuli.

Praxis is considered, first of all, as non-speech and speech (articulatory). The most difficult type of praxis is articulatory. Followingfor A. R. Luria, the author distinguishes afferent praxis (reproduction of individual, isolated sounds of the human language) and efferent (reproduction of the sounds of the language in a stream and connections with each other). The difference between the second ability and the first one is radical: in order to pronounce meaningful cascades of sounds, it is necessary, when articulating one sound, to already prepare for pronouncing the second (the most typical example is the rounding of a consonant in preparation for pronouncing the subsequent labial vowel).

Symbolic nonverbal thinking (the ability to perceive, recognize and reproduce images that have lost or partially lost their direct connection with reality) is considered in connection with thinking and consciousness, memory, emotions, will and behavior.

According to the tradition established by A. R. Luria, T. G. Wiesel’s book “Fundamentals of Neuropsychology” speaks of two levels of speech structure:

1) Gnostic (Practical);

2) semantic.

Moreover, the second level is considered as a superstructure over the first, basic one.

The chapter on the structure of the brain highlights current ideas about dynamic localization. It means that certain parts of the brain are associated with certain mental functions, however, the same zone can be included in different "ensembles" of areas, and from this point of view, the brain is compared with a children's kaleidoscope, when different elements are obtained from the same elements. patterns.

Recommendations for teachers and parents

In addition to theoretical data, the authorgives recommendations that are important for teachers, educators, parents and speech pathologists. For example, for the adequate development of objective gnosis, it is not necessary to show complex and elaborate things and images to a small child. First, the baby must master simple forms and toys well and compare them with the realities of the world around him.

Important recommendations are given in Wiesel's textbook "Fundamentals of Neuropsychology" regarding the development of a child's symbolic thinking: it will be formed with a delay if the child is deprived of fairy tales and fantastic images in early childhood. Thus, the rich experience of mastering the fairy-tale space is directly related to the future assimilation of reading, mathematics, geometry and other subjects.

Neuropsychology of disorders

The second large section of Wiesel's book Fundamentals of Neuropsychology, in accordance with the structure of the first section, deals with agnosia, apraxia, problems of symbolic thinking and pathologies of speech, as well as organic and functional causes of violations of higher mental functions.

Under agnosia refers to the inability to recognize objects of the surrounding world. Depending on the channel of perception, these disorders are divided into visual, auditory, optical-spatial and tactile.

Apraxia is a violation of the ability of arbitrary practical activity. Apraxia can be non-verbal and verbal.

Different types of violations of symbolic thinking are described in connection with problems:

• thinking and consciousness;
• memory;
• emotions and behaviors.

Despite the fact that symbolic thinking depends on the work of the brain as a whole, we can talk about correlations between the work of certain areas of the brain and certain types of disorders. For example, reasoning (pronunciation of other people's or banal sayings), as well as the inability to keep the original intent of the action and the inability to build a coherent structured story with a beginning and an end - all this is connected with the work of the anterior cortex of the left and right hemispheres.

her form, much attention is paid to stuttering due to its causes.

The section ends with the coverage of the main neuropsychological diagnostic methods.

Principles of remedial education

The third section of Tatyana Wiesel's book "Fundamentals of Neuropsychology" is devoted to the practice of helping children and adults with the disorders described in the second section. The emphasis is mainly on working with speech disorders.

In the first part of the section - on correctional work - the author talks about the work that can be done with children suffering from such speech pathologies as ZPR, ZRR, alalia, dyslexia and dysgraphia, dysarthria and stuttering.

The material of this section is presented from the point of view of the relationship between disorders and lesions of the brain. Authorfocuses on the fact that a speech therapist during work should solve not a particular problem, but the problem as a whole. So, corrective training in alalia should not be reduced to learning to articulate sounds. It should be aimed at teaching coherent speech, the formation of a dictionary, grammatical skills, and ultimately should imply enhanced work of the child’s intact channels of speech activity.

Rehabilitation training

The second part of the section on helping patients with neuropsychological disorders is devoted mainly to working with adult patients who, for one reason or another, have lost the ability to normal speech activity.

The concept of restorative learning relies on the ability of the brain to compensate.

The section reveals the principles of working with patients suffering from various forms of aphasia (motor, dynamic, sensory, acoustic-mnestic, semantic), and also describes methods for restoring non-speech disorders in patients with aphasia (overcoming violations of gnosis, apractognosia, constructive activity disorders, etc.)

Thus, Wiesel's textbook "Fundamentals of Neuropsychology" describes not only theoretical information about the structure of the brain in connection with the higher mental functions of a person, but also reveals modern methods of influencing the formation and restoration of these functions.