Originally published in 1984, the aim of this book was to interest clinical neuroscientists in the application of neurometrics to the evaluation of brain dysfunction in neurological patients. This methodology was hoped to produce substantial improvement in the neurological medical care of the general population at the time. In the previous 15 years, as a result of the development of minicomputers and their application to the quantitative analysis of electrophysiological phenomena, there had been a great expansion of knowledge about the electrical activity of the brain. This activity yielded a great variety of information about brain functions. Neurometrics is a methodology, based on quantitative measurements of the brain electrical activity, for evaluating anatomical integrity, developmental maturation, and the mediation of sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processes. This book focuses on practical clinical applications and the theoretical and experimental formulations on which these are based.

Originally published in 1984, the aim of this book was to interest clinical neuroscientists in the application of neurometrics to the evaluation of brain dysfunction in neurological patients. This methodology was hoped to produce substantial improvement in the neurological medical care of the general population at the time. In the previous 15 years, as a result of the development of minicomputers and their application to the quantitative analysis of electrophysiological phenomena, there had been a great expansion of knowledge about the electrical activity of the brain. This activity yielded a great variety of information about brain functions. Neurometrics is a methodology, based on quantitative measurements of the brain electrical activity, for evaluating anatomical integrity, developmental maturation, and the mediation of sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processes. This book focuses on practical clinical applications and the theoretical and experimental formulations on which these are based.

The late E. Roy John is considered the pioneer in the field of neurometrics – the science of measuring the underlying organization of the brain’s electrical activity. Volume 1, co-authored by Robert W. Thatcher, and Volume 2 both originally published in 1977, were among the first books this field. Volume 3, written by colleague Thalía Harmony, followed in 1984. The field expanded significantly in the 1990s and thousands of articles have subsequently been published. Available together for the first time these 3 volumes were important foundational works for the fields of quantitative electrophysiology and neurometrics.

We have had a number of interesting cases come to our attention over the years. The following are illustrative of some of the issues that can emerge at the interface between neuropsychology and the law. The first involved a patient suffering from a debilitating fear of heights. The fear seemed a reasonable consequence of the fact that he had been a passenger on a plane that crashed while attempting take off. Given that many of the passengers and crew died or were seriously injured, this man was quite fortunate. In fact, he could be said to have lived a charmed life. It had been just a year since he had been involved in an industrial accident in which he could have easily died. He came away from that accident with injuries to his legs and a concussion. That accident had also involved him falling from a considerable height so that there was some discussion among clinic staff about how well the patient's circumstances and symptoms fit the diagnostic category of "posttraumatic stress disorder. " Supportive psychotherapy was used as an aid in dealing with his re curring memories of the plane crash and systematic desensitization was quite successful in reducing the most disruptive consequences of his fear of heights. However, during the course of treatment, it became apparent that there were a number of problems that had not been addressed.

Originally published in 1977, this volume attempts to show how the existing state of knowledge and technique in neuroscience can be effectively applied to a variety of practical clinical problems that at the time were dealt with less than adequately. Traditionally, clinical electroencephalography had been one of the major techniques by which our knowledge of neuroscience had been brought to bear upon these problems. The utility of this technique had been sharply limited and constrained by reliance upon qualitative interpretation of electrophysiological observations. In contrast, the approach proposed here is based upon quantitative measurements of salient features extracted from electrophysiological data which reflect various aspects of brain function related to sensory, perceptual and cognitive processes as well as to the structural and functional integrity of different neuroanatomical systems. The Editors call this quantitative approach "neurometrics".

In the spring of 1987, I was in Havana, Cuba, where I was participating in planning a large-scale longitudinal study of the neurophysiological, neurochemical, and behavioral characteristics of cohorts of patients with cerebrovascular disease, depression, senile dementia, schizophrenia, or learning disabilities; and also part of this study were their first-degree blood relatives. This study was the outgrowth of a long-term project on the practical application of computer methods for the evaluation of brain electrical activity related to anatomical integrity, maturational development, and sensory, perceptual;·-and cognitive processes, especially in chil dren. For many years, that project had been supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the National Scientific Research Center of Cuba (CNIC), and the Ministries of Public Health and of Education of Cuba. Since its inception, I had served as a technical advisor to the UNDP project. When the project began, I became acquainted with Dr. Jose M. Miyar Barrueco, who was at that time the Rector of the Medical School of the University of Havana. Because of his keen interest in the new computer technology and its potential utility in developing countries, we met from time to time during my visits. These occasional meetings continued after he became Secretary of the Cuban Council of State, so that he could remain apprised of progress and problems with which he might help.