Neuroinformatics for Neuropsychology. Vinoth Jagaroo (author). Springer 2009, 126 pages, 20 illustrations, $129.00.
Bioinformatics revolutionized the way physicians and scientists approach data collecting, analysis and management. These approaches have gradually taken hold across disciplines including neuroscience (neuroinformatics) and now into the subspecialty area of neuropsychology. Neuropsychologists study how brain function and structure relates to psychological processes and behaviors. Neuropsychology research requires both the tools of anatomical neuroscience and the complex measures of psychology and biobehavioral research. While these complex tool-sets seem like a perfect application for bioinformatics, neuropsychology as a field has not yet realized the full potential of informatics, and this book demonstrates ways that neuropsychologists can utilize neuroinformatics approaches.
The book is organized into six sections. The first chapter gives an introduction to neuroinformatics and how data is approached. Chapter two “Current Neuroinformatics Applications and Infrastructure” briefly describes a variety of neuroinformatics tools used to study important topics in neuroscience. These include image construction, image databases, neural architecture and neural circuits. Chapter three “Neuroinformatics for Neuropsychology” directly introduces neuroinformatics applications to neuropsychology techniques including the general neuropsychology assessment, visuospatial processing, visual attention, spatial neglect, speech, language and phenomics. Particular attention is given to describing the difference between general computer applications in neuropsychology from potential applications of neuroinformatics. Chapter four discusses “Obstacles and Aids to Neuroinformatics in Neuropsychology” by addressing data sharing and privacy issues, standardizations, attitudes and training. Many of these issues have been faced by other fields trying to implement informatics systems. Chapter five discusses the newly formed Society for Neuroinformatics in Neuropsychology (SCNN). Chapter six gives a few closing remarks regarding the impact and future considerations of neuroinformatics in relation to neuropsychology.
The author is able to discuss a breadth of information in relatively short chapters. The discussion on neuroinformatics resources is an excellent compilation of available softwares. References are useful, appear complete and the number of web hyperlinks of interesting sites are particularly helpful. I’ve even added a few to my Internet Explorer favorites after reading the chapter. Although the book is written for neuropsychologists, neuroradiologists who participate in neuropsychology research may find this book a quick and easy read. Anyone interested in a brief overview of neuroinformatics would find chapter 2 very useful.
In summary, the author succinctly described applications of neuroinformatics to the field of neuropsychology. Descriptions of the applications are not overly technical and are easy to read. Neuropsychologists will find its discussion particularly useful when beginning to think about applying these technologies to their research.
