Editorial

In taking on the editorship of Cognitive Neuropsychology, my first priority has been to determine how the core mission of the journal could be strengthened in light of the many theoretical and technological advances that have occurred since the journal's founding in 1984 and, in particular, in the context of the neuroscience “explosion” of the last decade.

In the editorial accompanying the first issue of the first volume of Cognitive Neuropsychology in 1984, Max Coltheart aligned the primary goals of the journal with those of the cognitive sciences. He identified the goals quite clearly as: “to learn more about how the mind works: to formulate description(s) of the processes which occur during the execution of any mental activity such as identifying objects, speaking spontaneously, planning an action, or memorizing and recalling information”. These cognitively oriented objectives that have defined the journal since its inception will remain unchanged .

Further, the particular insight that was critical in creating the journal's unique identity amongst other cognitively oriented journals was the understanding that when “wishing to test theories concerning how some general mental activity is normally carried out, (researchers) need not confine themselves to investigations of those whose competence in this activity is normal” (Coltheart, 1984). This notion formed the basis of the journal's focus on research involving neuropsychological cases to develop and test theories of normal cognition. However, in recent years, the increasing sophistication of methods for the collection and analysis of neural data has allowed a broader range of neural evidence to be brought to bear on cognitive questions, making this an appropriate moment to expand upon the insight that neuropsychological data can be brought to bear on questions of cognition. Thus, consistent with the neuropsychological character of the journal and changes in direction already initiated by Alfonso Caramazza (the journal's second editor), the journal's Scope and Aims have now been expanded to promote research based on a broader understanding of the neuropsychological approach. This broader understanding includes not only methods based on brain pathology, but also on neural recording, neural stimulation or brain imaging. In other words, the journal will publish research that is not limited to the study of brain-lesioned individuals but also includes neurologically-intact adults, children or even non-human animals, as long as the methods involve some type of neural manipulation or measurement and the findings make an explicit and theoretically sophisticated contribution to our understanding of normal human cognition .

Developmental neuropsychology, intervention research and research in associated disciplines

In his editorial, Coltheart (1984) identified the potential for cognitive neuropsychological research to inform not only cognitive theories of the adult system but also of the developing system. He indicated that, at the time, there was very little work of this kind. In the interim, research studying developmental impairments to understand normal cognitive development has accelerated and the journal would like to ensure that that this type of research finds a home in Cognitive Neuropsychology . In fact, the journal welcomes research that advances our understanding of cognition across the entire life-span (childhood to aging) that is based on neuropsychological methods (broadly understood).

It is also important to clarify the position of research involving intervention or treatment of neuropsychological deficits (in adults or children). Intervention studies can provide powerful tests of cognitive theories and provide unique evidence regarding the nature of cognitive representation and processing. The journal encourages intervention studies that explicitly discuss the implications of the research for our understanding of cognition.

It is evident that cognitive neuropsychological research often shares methods and research questions with disciples such as cognitive psychology, clinical neuropsychology, neurology, computer science, linguistics, cognitive neuroscience and neurobiology. This proximity makes it important to identify the unique identity of Cognitive Neuropsychology. It is as follows. While the research supported by the journal often has significant clinical, and neurobiological implications, the work must have explicit cognitive ones as well. And, while the research may ask questions that are also examined by linguistics, cognitive psychology and computer science, the work must include neural evidence. In short, the goals: cognitive, the methods: neural. I believe that within the current landscape, this is a niche that is not well-represented and which Cognitive Neuropsychology is ideally suited to occupy.

In sum

The brain is fundamentally different from other organs and organ systems. Organs such as the heart, lungs and kidneys have evolved to carry out specialized physiological functions, such as pumping blood through the vasculature, transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide in and out of the bloodstream, or filtering the blood to remove wastes. The brain is like these organs in that it also makes critical contributions to a wide range of physiological processes, however, unlike them it is uniquely specialized for a different type of function altogether: the function of representing and processing information. Arguably this ability is not merely a consequence of the brain's enormous complexity, but rather of its special cognitive capacities. Progress in furthering our understanding of these cognitive capacities will certainly depend on multiple and complex methods of data collection and analysis as well as on sophisticated theoretical work. The goal of the Cognitive Neuropsychology is specifically to publish research that uses neural measurements and manipulations to further our understanding of the unique ability of the brain to represent and process information.