One of the fundamental features of the development of modern fundamental research on man is the development of areas at the intersection of sciences that were once considered incompatible. Tatyana Grigorievna Wiesel’s book “Fundamentals of Neuropsychology” is devoted to basic concepts of science, equally related to neurology and psychology. The basis of science was laid by a world-famous Russian scientist, colleague Lev Semenovich Vygotsky - Alexander Romanovich Luria. In line with these studies, techniques are being developed that link the brain to diseases related to speech, praxis (action) 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.
Focus on practitioners
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 directly working with impairments. However, the publication will be interesting not only to speech therapists, rehabilitologists, neurologists, defectologists and pediatricians, but also to everyone who is 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 guide to specific issues, or read from beginning to end, gradually plunging into the problems.
The first part of the textbook by T. G. Wiesel “Fundamentals of Neuropsychology” is devoted to normal neuropsychology, the second part to violations, and the third reveals the issues of correction and recovery.
Normal neuropsychology
In the first part of the book by T. G. Wiesel, "Fundamentals of Neuropsychology", such important concepts as speech, symbolic non-speech activity, gnosis and praxis are important for all humanities experts, psychologists and doctors.
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 objective, 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 precisely sequentially incoming stimuli.
Praxis is considered primarily as non-speech and speech (articulatory). The most difficult form of praxis is articulatory. Following A.R. Luria, the author distinguishes afferent praxis (reproduction of separate, isolated sounds of the human language) and efferent (reproduction of the sounds of the language in a stream and communication with each other). The difference between the second ability and the first is radical: in order to pronounce significant cascades of sounds, when articulating one sound, it is necessary to prepare to pronounce the second (the most typical example is the aggravation of the consonant in preparation for the pronunciation of the subsequent labial vowel).
Symbolic non-verbal 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 laid down by A. R. Luria, in the book of T. G. Wiesel "Fundamentals of Neuropsychology" it is said about two levels of speech structure:
1) Gnostic (practical);
2) semantic.
Moreover, the second level is considered as an add-on over the first, basic.
The chapter on the structure of the brain highlights contemporary ideas about dynamic localization. It means that certain parts of the brain are associated with certain mental functions, however, the same area 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 author makes recommendations that are relevant for teachers, educators, parents and defectologists. For example, for the adequate development of subject gnosis, you should not show a small child complex and elaborate things and images. First, the baby must well master simple forms, toys and compare them with the realities of the world around him.
Important recommendations are given in the Wiesel textbook “Fundamentals of Neuropsychology” regarding the development of the child’s symbolic thinking: it will be formed late if the child is deprived of fairy tales and fantastic images in early childhood. Thus, the rich experience in mastering the fabulous space is directly related to the assimilation in the future of reading, mathematics, geometry and other objects.
Neuropsychology of disorders
The second large section of Wiesel’s book, Fundamentals of Neuropsychology, in accordance with the structure of the first section, speaks of agnosia, apraxia, problems of symbolic thinking and speech pathologies, as well as organic and functional causes of disorders of higher mental functions.
By agnosia is understood 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 practice. Apraxia can be non-speech and speech.
Different types of violations of symbolic thinking are described in connection with the problems:
- thinking and consciousness;
- memory;
- emotions and behavior.
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 some types of disorders. For example, resonance (speaking alien or banal sayings), as well as the inability to keep the original plan of action and the inability to build a coherent structured narrative with a beginning and an end - all this is connected with the work of the front sections of the cortex of the left and right hemispheres.
Among speech pathologies in the book by T. G. Wiesel, “Fundamentals of Neuropsychology,” classical types of disorders are considered: alalias, including in severe form, ZPR, OHP, dyslalia, dyslexia and dysgraphia, including their secondary forms, dysarthria and its forms, great attention stuttering due to its causes.
The section ends with coverage of the main neuropsychological diagnostic methods.
Principles of Special 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. Mostly the emphasis is 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 in this section is presented in terms of the relationship between disorders and lesions of the brain. The author focuses on the fact that a speech therapist should not solve 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 vocabulary, grammar skills and, ultimately, should include enhanced work of the child’s preserved channels of speech activity.
Rehabilitation training
The second part of the section on assistance to patients with neuropsychological disorders is mainly devoted to working with adult patients who, for one reason or another, have lost the ability to normal speech activity.
The concept of restorative learning is based on the brain's ability to compensate.
The section describes the principles of work with patients suffering from various forms of aphasia (motor, dynamic, sensory, acousto-mnestic, semantic), and describes methods for restoring non-speech disorders in patients with aphasia (overcoming disorders of gnosis, apractognosy, structural activity disorders, etc.) . d.)
Thus, the Wiesel 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 discloses modern methods of influencing the formation and restoration of these functions.