Neuropsychological Assessment Track

Inpatient and outpatient comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations for patients referred for a variety of medical and psychiatric conditions.

The Neuropsychological Assessment Track is designed to follow the Houston Conference Guidelines on Specialty Education and Training in Clinical Neuropsychology. 

Mandatory Days/Times: Thursdays and either Monday, Tuesday, or Fridays for testing.

Clientele and Services Provided by Students: Adults and older adults who are racially/ethnically diverse and have multiple medical and psychiatric co-morbidities. Externs learn to conduct comprehensive inpatient and outpatient neuropsychological assessments, score and interpret data, and write both brief summaries and complete evaluation reports, which include results in cognitive domains, performance validity testing, psychological functioning, diagnostic impressions, and recommendations. Externs also learn how to communicate with medical treatment teams both prior to and after assessments and gather a broad range of information from collaterals to make treatment and placement recommendations. Externs who are fluent/native Spanish speakers have the opportunity to train in bilingual/bicultural neuropsychological assessment, and applications from such students are strongly encouraged.

Most Frequent Diagnostic Categories: Patients often have multiple neurological and neuropsychiatric diagnoses, including dementias (e.g., AD type, frontotemporal, vascular), multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and schizophrenia. Factors that influence differential diagnosis include language status (ESL), acculturation, ethnicity, homelessness, poor nutrition, lack of education, poverty, and chronic mental illness.

Location(s) of Services: Services are rendered in multiple locations in the main hospital building.

Supervision: 1 hr/wk of individual and 1 hr/wk of group. Supervision is provided by a staff neuropsychologist.

Didactics: Externs attend didactic seminars on neuropsychology topics (e.g., functional neuroanatomy, psychopharmacology, neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions, psychometrics, performance validity testing) as well as topics in the fields of psychology and psychiatry.