PSY 507 NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
Fall, 2009 - Monday, 1-3:40 pm

McGowan 2004
Brooke J. Cannon, Ph.D.
Marywood University

(348-6211 x2324)
cannonb@marywood.edu

OFFICE HOURS: My office is in the McGowan Center, #1077. The following are scheduled office hours. Other times are available by appointment. Any changes will be posted on my office door and announced in class:

Monday: 10 am -noon                  Tuesday: 3 – 5 pm                  Thursday: 10 - 11 am


REQUIRED TEXTS:

 

RECOMMENDED TEXT:


DESCRIPTION: An examination of the brain-behavior relationships of major neuropsychological deficits and disorders. Emphasis will be on clinical presentation and neuroanatomical correlates, with discussion of commonly used assessment tools. Case examples will serve to illustrate various disorders.

OBJECTIVES: After successful completion of this course, the student should have:

 

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: Marywood University complies with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the American with Disabilities Act of 1990. Students with disabilities who need special accommodations should advise the instructor and submit documentation of the disability at the Office of Disability Services, Liberal Arts Center 202, in order for reasonable accommodations to be granted. The Office of Disability Services will determine the appropriate accommodation and in cooperation with the instructor, will work to ensure that the student has a fair opportunity to perform in this class. To best service the needs of the student, he/she should notify the instructor and the Office of Disability Services of special accommodation needs by the last day to register for semester classes. Contact the Academic Excellence Center, LAC 202 (340-6045).

REQUIREMENTS:

Examinations (each 30% of grade):  There will be two (2) examinations covering assigned material in the text, assigned readings on reserve, handouts, and lecture. Format will be objective test items and short answer. Should an emergency necessitate a make-up exam, the resulting raw score will determine the grade; that is, the student will not benefit from the modified curve based on class performance. Therefore, there is a distinct advantage to taking the exam as scheduled.

Article review/class discussion (15% of grade):  Each student will choose an article focusing on a case of an unusual neuropsychological or neurological (must involve the brain) disorder and will prepare a brief (no more than 5 pages) written summary to be turned in by the date indicated below. It is expected that the student will discuss the issues regarding differential diagnosis, clinical presentation, and neuroanatomical correlates - even if not contained in the article itself. You must turn in a copy of the article with your summary or your grade will suffer!

It is suggested that you skim through neuropsychology journals/abstracts, Discover magazine, or neurology journals until a particular article catches your fancy. The journal Neurology often, if not every issue, has a feature article on "historical neurology" which tends to be interesting. See the list of journals at the end of the syllabus which are available in my office and can be borrowed. On the class website, I will put links to free full text articles available on-line as the semester progresses.

During the class discussion of "unusual cases," be prepared to try to "stump" the class on the diagnosis of the unusual case you reviewed. Give the clinical presentation of the case and then the class can ask questions to try to determine the diagnosis. This should not be viewed as an oral examination, but rather as a game of "20 questions." You can reference the article for answers or simply indicate that the information was not provided. Your presentation should be no more than 10 minutes. Let's have fun with this!

Research review paper (25% of grade):  I recommend that you read all of Strunk & White before starting to write your paper. Each student will prepare a 15-20 page paper (not including title, abstract-not needed, or reference pages), with 1" margins, 12-point Times Roman font, double-spaced, addressing a particular neuropsychological dysfunction or disorder, ideally one not specifically covered in class, such as brain trauma, multiple sclerosis, attention deficit disorder, post-concussional syndrome, etc. The paper must include at least ten (10) empirical research references (empirical means an actual study - subjects, method, results, etc., not a review or theoretical paper), each of which is critically examined in the body of the paper and appropriately cited. These are to be primary citations, that is, you must directly read the article, not reference it "as cited in" another article. Along with your paper, all cited references must be turned in. Put your name on top of each article; they will be returned with your paper. The paper is meant to be an exercise in critical thinking, not simply an overview of the topic, with attention paid to each study's design, methods, conclusions, and generalizability. Integration of the research covered in the paper is expected, with some general conclusion reached regarding the status of the area examined. The paper must be written in current APA format. If you are unclear as to how to approach this assignment, discuss it with me. I will read drafts and give feedback, allowing for 1 week turnaround time; don't give me a paper to review less than 8 days before it is due, to allow for your revision time. Earlier is better. Students are strongly encouraged to use this editorial process, but are not required.  Only the paper turned in on the due date will be graded. Don't hand in a paper that is less than 15 FULL pages of text or has margins greater than 1" or your grade will be lowered significantly!!!

GRADING:  Grades for the requirements will be assigned according to the following subjective descriptors:

A = outstanding

B = average

C = seriously deficient 

A- = excellent 

B- = below average

 F = failing 

B+ = above average

C+ = poor

 

 

Assignments will be graded for content and quality, according to the essential components of each requirement. For example, the final paper should contain each of the elements outlined above (content), and the student’s critique and integration of the research discussed should be clear and organized. If all required elements are present (e.g., 10 references, critique of each, appropriate paper length), the paper will be scored at least a B, with higher grades given for quality of the work. The grade will go down one step (e.g., B to B-), for each required component missing, regardless of paper quality (that is, quality won’t help if required elements are missing!).

 

Grading of exams will be based on a modified "curve," with the top grade on each exam determining the "A," or 100%. The A range will be from 95-100%; the A- range from 90-94%; the B+ range from 85-89%; the B range from 80-84%; the B- range from 75-79%; C+ from 70-74%; C from 65-69%; and F<65%. The curve is not based on the number of people, but the percentage of earned points. Therefore, there is no limit to the proportion of students who can earn As (or any other grade).

 

 NOTHING WILL BE ACCEPTED LATE! Plan ahead. Expect printing problems, computer viruses, etc. I will gladly accept assignments early. If you are sick or your car won’t start or whatever on the day the paper is due, put it in the mail that day or the next morning - I will check the postmark.

PLAGIARISM WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.  Any written or orally presented material must be in your own words, with appropriate citation for the proper paraphrasing of another's work.  Any direct quotes from another source must be designated with quotation marks and cited according to the APA Publication Manual; also see this manual for additional information about plagiarism.  Direct quotation should be minimal, i.e., no more than a few words or phrases which cannot be paraphrased adequately.  Quoting or using the exact wording of another author because you do not understand what is written is no excuse.  Find another reference if that is the case.  Any assignments completed through plagiarism will receive a grade of zero.  Ignorance is no excuse.  Give me your draft, or portions of it, and the references as part of the editorial process and I will assess for proper paraphrasing, citation, etc.  Every student must complete the University of Indiana Plagiarism Test, if not already done for another class; a copy of the certificate of completion must be submitted no less than 1 week prior to the due date for the research paper.

 

PROPOSED CLASS SCHEDULE:

[Any alterations from this schedule will be discussed in class.]

 

 

FM = Fractured Minds

Man = Man Who Mistook His Wife...

Anthro = An Anthropologist on Mars

DATE:

TOPIC:

ASSIGNMENT:

8/31

Syllabus overview; physiological psychology refresher; Williams Syndrome film (L)

 

9/7

NO CLASS-Labor Day

 

9/14

History of clinical neuropsychology; assessment approaches

Ethical issues

 FM - Ch. 1-2 

Gass & Brown  article (on reserve)

Grote et al. article (on reserve)

9/21

Brain development; developmental disorders

 

FM – Ch. 19

Anthro – Prodigies, Anthropologist on Mars, A Surgeon’s Life

Man – Ch. 10, 14, 23

9/28

Developmental disorders, cont.; Tourette’s film (L)

 

10/5

Emotions; epilepsy; apraxia; visuospatial deficits;

Ramachandran film (O)

Anthro – Case of the Colorblind Painter, Landscape of His Dreams

FM – Ch. 4, 6

Man - Ch. 6, 15, 20

10/12

Agnosia; awareness

Agnosia film (L)

Ellis and Szulecka reading (on reserve)

FM = Ch. 7, 8 

Man -  Ch. 1, 4, 8

Parkin reading (on reserve)

10/19

Midterm

 

10/26

Communication disorders

FM – Ch. 5

Man - Ch. 9

11/2

Memory

False Memories film (CL)

FM – Ch. 3

Man -  Ch. 2, 12, 19  

11/9

Memory, cont.; Traumatic brain injury

FM – Ch. 11

11/16

Frontal lobes; callosal syndromes
Scientific American film (O)

Anthro – Last Hippie

FM – Ch. 9, 18, 19

11/23

RESEARCH PAPERS DUE

Awakenings

 

11/30

Mental status MMSE film (O); dementia; Frontotemporal Dementia Patient film (O)

FM – CH 15, 16, 17

Man – Ch. 7

12/7

ARTICLE SUMMARIES DUE
Class discussion of "unusual cases"

 

 

12/14

FINAL EXAM

 

 

Articles on Reserve in McGowan Center Curriculum Lab:

·        Ellis, H. D., & Szulecka, T. K. (1996).  “The disguised lover:  A case of Fregoli Delusion,” in Method in Madness:  Case Studies in Cognitive Neuropsychiatry.  East Sussex, U.K.:  Psychology Press, 39-50.

·        Gass, C. & Brown, M. (1992). Neuropsychological test feedback to patients with brain dysfunction. Psychological Assessment, 4, 272-277. 

·        Grote, C., Lewin, J., Sweet, J., & van Gorp, W. (2000). Responses to perceived unethical practices in clinical neuropsychology: Ethical and legal considerations. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 14, 119-134. 

·        Parkin, A. J. (1996).  “The alien hand,” in Method in Madness:  Case Studies in Cognitive Neuropsychiatry.  East Sussex, U.K.:  Psychology Press, 173-184.

Many Neuropsychology texts and issues of the following journals are in my office/lab and available to be signed out for brief intervals :

·        Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology

·        The Clinical Neuropsychologist

·        Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology

·        Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society

·        Neuropsychology (full text also available through PsycArticles)