The American Psychological Association has announced that it will become the worldwide publisher of the journal Psychology & Neuroscience. This widely respected journal of the Brazilian Institute of Neuropsychology and Behaviour (Instituto Brasileiro de Neuropsicologia e Comportamento) was first published in 2008 by the Pontificia Universiade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro. A quarterly publication, the journal explores the intersections between neuroscience and psychology and publishes peer-reviewed papers from contributors throughout the world. Its articles encompass multidisciplinary aspects of brain function — including sensation, perception, attention, learning, memory, emotion, motivation, intelligence, thinking, consciousness and language. With a commitment to integrating basic and clinical research, Psychology & Neuroscience has published articles that address psychological dysfunctions, including anxiety, depression, drug addiction and schizophrenia, and the effects on the brain of a range of other conditions, including neurodegeneration, metabolic alterations and genetic changes.
The journal is organized into five thematic sections:
- Psychophysics and Perception: Focuses on studies of sensory processes, perception, attention and psychophysics.
- Behavior/Systems/Cognition: Includes advances in fields related to learning, memory, emotion, cognition, and other psychological systems, with an emphasis on behavioral perspectives.
- Plasticity and Neural Development: Incorporates studies that pertain to the neural mechanisms that underlie adaptability, development and plasticity, especially those that evaluate the bidirectional relationships between brain and behavior.
- Neuropsychopharmacology: Contains articles on clinical, preclinical, and basic pharmacological studies in humans and animals that address the physiological, molecular and behavioral properties of psychotropic agents.
- Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology: Concentrates on studies of healthy or clinical populations that explore the relationships between neurological/psychiatric disorders and human cognitive, emotional and behavioral functions.
Psychology & Neuroscience is edited by three Brazilian psychologists with international reputations:
- J. Landeira-Fernandez, PhD, a professor of psychology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, is the founder and current president of the Brazilian Institute of Neuropsychology and Behaviour, founder and director of the Center for Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, and the founding editor of Psychology & Neuroscience.
- A. Pedro de Mello Cruz, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Brasilia and a co-founder of the program in behavioral sciences at the university’s Institute of Psychology. He was previously an editor of the journal Psychology: Theory and Research.
- Dora Fix Ventura, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the University of São Paulo and vice dean of the university’s Institute of Psychology, which she co-founded. She has been active in the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science, received several major scientific awards, and served as president of the Brazilian Federation of Societies of Experimental Biology.
Prospective contributors and subscribers are encouraged to visit the journal’s APA homepage.
Articles published in Psychology & Neuroscience are also available through PsycARTICLES®, the most used full-text database in psychology and one of the most popular databases in all scholarly disciplines and fields. PsycARTICLES is available to a global audience of nearly 3,400 institutions and 60 million potential users.
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the largest association of psychologists in the world. For more than 75 years, the APA Journals Program has been dedicated to advancing psychology as a science and as a means of promoting health, education, and human welfare by disseminating knowledge through an extensive publishing program.