Hispanic Populations: Special Issues in Neuropsychology

For many members of ethnic minority and non-minority groups living in the U.S., Hispanics included, the interrelationship between neuropsychological test performance and education, socioeconomic factors, and other specific variables, such as nutrition, access to health care, and stress, is particularly complex, with significant implications for a science of brain-behavior relationships and its practice. While educational attainment to a large degree dictates, and certainly facilitates, income potential, it is also the case that socioeconomic advancement facilitates educational attainment and other specific advantages, and both of these variables have been shown to impact neuropsychological performance. These are important factors meriting attention, and many investigators have noted that it is these factors, rather than cultural or ethnic factors, that require attention.