Left hemisphere dominance for movement.

Abstract

Clinical neuropsychology's dependence upon a core scientific background in clinical neuropsychology, and clinical psychology, neurology, and neuroanatomy, as well as biopsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive science is the basis of its designation as an APA-approved clinical specialty. This dependence highlights the importance of these scientific underpinnings and the scientist-practitioner model of training, detailed in the Houston Guidelines. This presentation is meant to demonstrate that cognitive neuroscience research should influence our conception of brain behavior relationships, which, in turn, should influence our clinical work. In addition, I want to illustrate how the utilization of converging methods, which is an increasingly popular approach to research, can ensure more valid conclusions about the neuroanatomical substrates for complex skills. Limb apraxia will be used as an example of a deficit that has functional implications and whose cognitive mechanisms and neuroanatomical correlates are better understood as a result of research that combines neuroanatomical imaging of brain damaged patients, functional imaging, and cognitive paradigms. This work demonstrates that left frontoparietal circuits control limb praxis and motor sequencing, suggesting that these complex motor skills should be examined in patients with such damage.