Neuropsychology, as well as cognitive neuroscience investigates the process of human cognition using several in vivo systemic approaches in order to explore neural mechanism. Besides the routine clinical neuropsychological assessments, up to date the latest neuroimaging techniques based on acoustics, optics, electricity and magnetism, have been applied to construct three-dimensional neuroimaging representations through mathematic models, and to identify functional areas or lesions in the brain. Presently, the combined use of functional MRI (fMRI) and event related potential (ERP) techniques is pioneering, especially when integrated synchronously.

Objective To study memory changes in patients with non-demented Parkinson' s disease (PD) without depression. Methods The Nissen Version (serial reaction time task, SRTT) software, as a task of procedural learning, along with the WMS-CR and two tasks of implicit memory were used in 16 PD patients( Hoehn-Yahr score Ⅰ - Ⅱ degrees)and normal controls enrolled. Results In the explicit WMS-CR and the implicit (word stem completion and degraded picture naming) tasks, the patients' scores fell within normal limits. In the SRTT, controls displayed significantly reduced response times and error rates across blocks of repeated sequence trials. By contrast, PD patients only showed a reduction in error rates but no change in response times. Conclusion Impairment of nigrostriatal pathway selectively affects performance in visuo-motor learning tasks such as the SRTT, but not in the explicit tasks of WMS-CR, and the implicit tasks such as word stem completion and degraded picture naming, supporting the multiple memory theory.