Neural and mental dysfunction

Mental disorders, learning disabilities and mental retardation are not usually classed as primarily neurological. However the distinction can be a matter of some debate, either in regard to specific facts about the cause of a condition or in regard to the general understanding of brain and mind. Furthermore the definition of disorder can be contested in regard to what is considered abnormal, dysfunctional, harmful or unnatural in neurological, evolutionary, psychometric or social terms.

While certain types of mental condition are not usually classified primarily as neurological disorders, and certain types of brain disorder are not usually classified primarily as mental conditions, there are now an array of basic sciences that deal with the continuum between the neural and the mental, including subspecialities of psychology and neuroscience such as neuropsychology, cognitive neuropsychology or cognitive (thought) neuroscience, affective (emotion) neuroscience, behavior neuroscience (also known as biopsychology), social neuroscience, and neurophenomenology(subjective experience and consciousness).

These basic fields inform the applied medical and clinical disciplines of neurology,psychiatry and clinical psychology, whose theories and treatments now routinely encompass a biopsychosocial model. These disciplines in turn comprise subspecialities such as behavioral neurology,neuropsychiatry and clinical neuropsychologythat deal with cases where a connection between mental/behavioral problems and brain dysfunction is particularly called for.Biopsychiatry is the general term for the approach in psychiatry that seeks to explain all mental disorders primarily in terms of the biological functioning of the nervous system.

The conventional distinctions drawn between mind, brain and nervous system are to some extent mirrored by the various overlapping categories of clinical examination, namelymental state examination, neuropsychological assessment and neurological examination. At the present time a brain scan alone cannot accurately diagnose a mental disorder or tell the risk of developing one, but can be used to rule out other medical conditions such as a brain tumor.^[5]