New Technologies in Clinical Neuroscience

This chapter provides an overview of advances in many of the technologies that are used to probe the neurobiology of frontostriatal developmental disorders. Neuroimaging approaches have continued to develop at a rapid pace. The development of the technologies and techniques reviewed in the chapter are the main reason that this is such an exciting time to be working in the neurosciences. Among the major technological developments in human neuroscience over the past 15 years has been the widespread uptake of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques. This includes magnetic stimulation techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, which can induce electrical current in the brain via magnetic pulse that is delivered to the scalp. The chapter considers the burgeoning field of computational modelling in neuroscience. These approaches attempt to conceptualise and understand aspects of the nervous system via a series of mathematical equations. There have been numerous attempts to provide computational modelling accounts of behaviour and neurobiology in relation to frontostriatal neurodevelopmental disorders.