Friday, July 25, 2008

Neurological or neurophysiological?

Back to the debate as to the difference between neurological and neurophysiological. A friend of mine with a PhD in pychology in pain research writes:
neurological = anatomical/structural
neurophysiological = functional
I looked at the web again, and finally found someone actually describing neurological rather than refering to neurology:
neurological: Having to do with the nerves or the nervous system
But I could not find one for neurophysiological, but neurophysiology studies the functioning of the nervous system. But it seems to me that neurology should in principle include the functioning of the nervous system, because it has to do with the nervous system. And I think neurophysiologists argue that neurology is traditionally concerned with "truely anatomical and structural" deficits with clear symptomatology and not with more subtle dysfunctioning of parts of the nervous system like dyslexia for example. But I think neurologists would say that they would deal with all brain-based disorders.
Interestingly when the Society of Neuroscience talks about stuttering (here), they do not use the words "neurological" or "neurophysiological" but the word "biological" and "anatomical". However, the article is for laypeople.

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