The Use of Neuropsychological Knowledge in Understanding Learning Disorders

Abstract

In this chapter the current status of our knowledge of the brain—behavior relationship will be examined within the context of problems of cognitive function and classroom learning. This is a particularly interesting and promising area of exploration but one in which there are still many gray areas. Neurologists and neurosurgeons still are largely ignorant of the particular functions (if they do exist) of most segmental parts of the cerebrum, thalamus, and brainstem, but they do possess knowledge of some of the gross relationships of the brain and behavior, and this knowledge has relevance for the clinical psychologist and the classroom teacher. This attempt to relate neurological, psychological, and educational knowledge is a radical one and is still in its infancy. Since 1963 many professional meetings have been held in the United States and Canada to discuss learning disorders, and most of these have included neurologists as major invited speakers. These meetings have been sponsored by medical schools, associations of ophthalmology and pediatrics, and other medical specialties, as well as schools of education. This is a healthy sign, because physicians, psychologists, and educators are now likely to progress more rapidly in understanding learning disorders by pooling their knowledge and professional experience.

All nervous centers have then in the first instance one essential function, that of “intelligent” action. They feel, prefer one thing to another, and have “ends.” Like all other organs, however, they evolve from ancestor to descendant, and their evolution takes two directions, the lower centers passing downwards into more unhesitating automatism, and the higher ones upwards into larger intellectuality.

William James (1890)