Neuropsychology Services
What is Neuropsychology?
Neuropsychology is the clinical science that studies how the brain allows us to perform all the complex mental, emotional, and behavioral tasks that we do in our daily lives including concentrating, accurately perceiving things around us, controlling our movement, communicating through language, learning and remembering information, thinking and problem solving, and controlling our emotions and behavior.
What Qualifies a Person to be a Neuropsychologist?
A neuropsychologist earns a doctoral degree in clinical psychology, completes a 1-year internship, and an additional 2-year residency concentrated in neuropsychology. All neuropsychologists must be licensed to practice by their state licensing board. Neuropsychologists may optionally become certified by the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology. The Emory School of Medicine has more board certified neuropsychologists in practice than any other institution in Georgia. Two of these practitioners, Dr. Anthony Y. Stringer and Dr. Amy Alderson, are faculty in Rehabilitation Neuropsychology.
What is the Mission of the Division of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology?
The Division of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology is a part of Rehabilitation at Emory. The Division’s mission is to create and sustain a clinical-academic environment that inspires and supports faculty in attaining career excellence, allows students to discover the work that they were meant to do, and enhances the quality of life of patients through the compassionate application of neuropsychological science and technology. This mission means that at Emory, patients receive the latest and most innovative neuropsychological methods from the people who create and teach them. For over 30 years, the Division of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology has served the entire Emory University Medical School and Emory Healthcare system and all of Georgia.
What is a Neuropsychological Assessment?
A basic neuropsychological examination includes tests of attention, perception, movement control, language, memory, thinking ability, intellectual functioning, and emotional and behavioral control. Depending on the referral question, the age of the patient, and the patient’s diagnosis, a neuropsychologist may administer a screening that takes 30 minutes to 2 hours or a comprehensive assessment that can take 8 hours or, in rare cases, longer. Very long evaluations may be done over several days. Neuropsychologists also administer a number of specialized assessments for patients with particular problems. For example, patients who are returning to school or vocational training programs will take tests that measure academic achievement in addition to the basic neuropsychological exam. Patients who have significant psychiatric symptoms such as depression or anxiety, will take tests that allow the neuropsychologist to examine emotions, behavior, personality, and adjustment to life circumstances.
Neuropsychologists give even more specialized assessments to patients who are candidates for surgery to relieve a seizure disorder that cannot be controlled by medication. These more specialized assessments include the Wada Test (named after Dr. Juhn Wada, who invented the procedure), functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI for short), and cortical language mapping. During the Wada Test, the neuropsychologist assesses language and memory while a part of the brain has been anesthetized. During fMRI, the neuropsychologist tests various mental abilities and a physician takes pictures of how blood is flowing through the brain while the tests are performed. Lastly, cortical language mapping involves direct electrical stimulation of the brain to find areas that are important for language ability so that the neurosurgeon can avoid these areas during surgery.
The neuropsychologists in the Division of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology are trained in all these assessments techniques, allowing us to provide patients with a full range of neuropsychological diagnostic services to inpatients and outpatients throughout the Emory Healthcare system. All examinations are selected, planned, and interpreted by neuropsychologists who are faculty in the Emory University Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. Most assessments are administered by trained technicians (neuropsychology assistants) who work under the direct and close supervision of the neuropsychology faculty. As the Rehabilitation Neuropsychology Division has one of the top clinical training programs in the United States, patients are also served by neuropsychology externs, interns, and residents who work under the supervision of the neuropsychology faculty, and who represent the next generation of leaders in the field of neuropsychology. Neuropsychology faculty members are in the forefront of innovation and teaching in clinical diagnostic methods. Dr. Anthony Y. Stringer, the Director of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology is the author of A Guide to Adult Neuropsychological Diagnosis, a textbook that has become a classic in the field of neuropsychological diagnosis and that serves as a reference for many practicing clinicians.
What is Cognitive Rehabilitation?
Cognitive rehabilitation consists of techniques for improving attention, memory, and thinking skills and strategies that allow patients to compensate for permanent problems in each of these areas. The Division of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology offers cognitive rehabilitation to adults with acquired problems in attention, memory, and thinking skills due to brain injury, stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, cancer (or cancer chemotherapy), pre- or early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurological diseases or conditions. We also currently are conducting a clinical trial to test the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation for children who have attention, memory, and thinking skills problems due to neurological conditions. Cognitive rehabilitation is administered by neuropsychology assistants, interns, and residents under faculty supervision. Dr. Anthony Y. Stringer is the only neuropsychologist in Georgia certified by the Society for Cognitive Rehabilitation and is the author of the Ecologically Oriented Neurorehabilitation Program which trains patients in strategies for compensating for real world attention, memory, and thinking skill problems. This program was created at Emory and is now being used throughout the United States, illustrating again that at Emory patients receive the latest and most innovative neuropsychological methods from the people who create and teach them.
What Behavioral Health Diagnostic and Treatment Services are Offered?
Neurological conditions can dramatically affect the emotional and behavioral functioning of the brain. In addition, patients with sudden, chronic, or catastrophic neurological conditions can have significant and lasting problems adjusting to the condition and any resulting disablement. Spouses, children, and other family members may undergo considerable stress and strain as their loved one struggles with emotional and behavioral changes. Stress itself can cause the brain to malfunction, producing symptoms that mimic neurological disorders even when those disorders are not actually present.
The Division of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology conducts diagnostic assessments for persons experiencing emotional, behavioral, and adjustment problems associated with their neurological illness, or the stress that may accompany such illness. These assessments include interviews and patient questionnaires, and encompass the needs of spouses and other family members. These assessments are typically incorporated as part of a patient’s neuropsychological examination. Depending upon examination results, patients may be recommended for behavioral health treatment services within the Division. This includes individual psychotherapy and behavior management techniques, family education and intervention, and treatment of stress-induced symptoms that mimic neurological illness. Dr. Amy Alderson, a board certified clinical neuropsychologist and Rehabilitation Neuropsychology faculty member, is a specialist in the psychotherapeutic treatment of emotional, behavioral, and adjustment disorders associated with neurological illness and is pioneering the development of a clinical program for patients with stress-related symptoms that mimic neurological disorders. At Emory patients receive the latest and most innovative neuropsychological methods from the people who create and teach them.
What Patient Populations Are Served?
Patients with cognitive or neurobehavioral disorders due to acquired brain injury, stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, brain tumor, cancer and cancer chemotherapy, aging and dementia, major organ system or transplant, and other neurological conditions.
To Make a Referral
Referrals may be made by phone, fax or mail.
Phone: 404.712.5667
Fax: 404.712.1652
Mail: Emory Center for Rehabilitation Medicine
Division of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology
1441 Clifton Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30322
Our financial clearance and call staff will handle insurance pre-certification, scheduling, and requests of medical records.
Faculty Listing
- Anthony Y. Stringer, Ph.D., ABPP/CN, CPCRT
Professor, Director of Rehabilitation Neuropsychology
Specializations: Neuropsychological assessment and cognitive rehabilitation - Amy Alderson, Ph.D., ABPP/CN
Assistant Professor
Specializations: Neuropsychological and behavioral health assessment and psychotherapy - Alyssa Braaten, Ph.D. (serving the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center)
Assistant Professor
Specializations: Neuropsychological assessment and cognitive rehabilitation - Benjamin Hampstead, Ph.D. (serving Emory and the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center)
Assistant Professor
Specializations: Neuropsychological assessment, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and cognitive rehabilitation in early dementia - Sarah Lageman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Specializations: Neuropsychological and behavioral health assessment for all patient populations and cognitive rehabilitation in cancer and cancer chemotherapy - Anna Bacon Moore, Ph.D. (serving Emory and the Atlanta Veterans Medical Center)
Assistant Professor
Specializations: Neuropsychological assessment and functional magnetic resonance imaging - Suzanne Penna, Ph.D. (serving the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center)
Assistant Professor
Specializations: Neuropsychological assessment
