Preliminary Glances at an Integrated Neuropsychological Theory

Abstract

Many neuropsychologists would like to explain consistently within a single theoretical framework the part played by nervous systems in the production of numerous phenomena studied extensively by experimental psychologists and other behaviour scientists. The central issue concerns the code and the encoding systems by means of which nervous systems transact their versatile performances, and the explanatory range and power of any candidate coding system. In this monograph I shall explore a new coding paradigm, namely a neuropsychological molecular biological mapping theory which appears capable of explaining and linking up a considerable range of phenomena of the behaviour sciences and the neurosciences. Although neuro-anatomy imposes severe constraints on the choice of encoding systems, and, hence, on candidate codes, the range of possibilities is much larger than seems to be generally realised. In fact, theorists have worked with astonishingly few types of coding systems, and it is likely that the severe difficulties of previously published neuropsychological models (NPMs) are consequences of their choices of particular hypothesised codes and coding structures. It is these difficulties (see Chapter 6) which led me to study the possibilities offered by the new coding paradigm presented here and an NPM based on it.