What is a neuropsychologist?
When considering getting neuropsychological testing, it is extremely helpful to understand what a neuropsychologist is. It is a word that gets thrown around frequently, but what does it truly mean? How are neuropsychologists different than regular psychologists?
The major thing that makes neuropsychologists special is their focus on how different conditions that occur in the brain affect how people think, act, and engage in everyday life. Psychologists are focused more on the impact of life experiences and behaviors that a client may engage in, while neuropsychologists are more focused on the biological and cognitive functions that may be impacting this behavior. Neuropsychologists look at the practical abilities people have and test each special area of brain functioning to gather the information they need to best understand how their client’s brain is carrying out the activities it encountering.
The areas that neuropsychologists are interested in testing their client’s functioning in include their general intelligence, language ability, attention, executive functioning (which is further explained here), visual spatial skills, memory, processing speed, social abilities, and emotional responses. Through testing this wide variety of areas and interpreting the scores that are obtained by the client, the neuropsychologist is able to see patterns of how the client’s brain is currently working. Certain conditions in the brain, like attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder or Alzheimer’s disease, typically demonstrate similar patterns in scores in clients that have the same diagnosis.
In addition to the test scores, neuropsychologists use background information about their clients to fill in any necessary gaps. They usually interview their clients before testing to understand why they are wanting testing and what specifically they want to be focused on in testing. By getting information about the client’s past, the neuropsychologist gets important pieces of the the puzzle to help confirm or color the scores that the client earns.
Becoming a neuropsychologist is no easy task because understanding how to interpret scores, incorporate background information, and relate that to the biological functioning of the brain takes a fair amount of practice. Neuropsychologists need to earn their bachelor’s degree, a doctoral degree in psychology and have a neuropsychology post-doctoral fellowship, as well as pass a national exam, before they can take the title of neuropsychologist.
If you are struggling day to day with something, or you are curious to understand how your brain works, it may be helpful to get in touch with a neuropsychologist who can help you do so!