This paper is devoted to illustrating how process neuropsychology and neurolinguistics, based on microgenetic theory androoted in process thought, can help to explain the often baffling symptomatology of brain damage. Our purpose is to present an overview of this difficult and complex subject matter for readers, with particular emphasis on its creative potential. The essence of microgenetic theory in neuropsychology is an account of the phases in brain process through which successive mind/brain states arise and perish over the duration of the psychological present, measured in milliseconds. According to the theory, mental states are rhythmically generated out of a “core” in the anatomically deepest and phylogenetically oldest parts of the central nervous system, over phases to the outermost and youngest regions of the brain, the neocortex. The clinical applications are only one aspect of the creative potential of microgenetic theory. Indeed, the elegance of the theory consists in the way in which it can be extended into a number of different fields of endeavor, providing a kind of “unified field theory” for the explanation of often rather diverse phenomena. This provides an opportunity for neuropsychology and neurolinguistics to resume the interdisciplinary discourse they were founded to conduct.
The aim of this study was to examine the neurophysiological correlates of cognitive dysfunctions in a patient with the minimally verbal variant of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD + MV), who after reaching adulthood showed progressive deterioration of his cognitive skills. The patient was a 25-year-old male, diagnosed with ASD. He never developed spoken language, and communicated only by gesturing or writing on a computer. Our findings confirmed comorbidity of ASD and epilepsy, accompanied by dysfunction of cognitive control. We also found that spontaneous EEG and event-related potentials (ERPs) in a cued GO/NOGO task can be used to assess functional brain changes concomitant with ASD.
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