Neuropsychology in South Africa: confronting the challenges of specialist practice in a culturally diverse developing country.

Objective: This was an invited paper on the history and current status of neuropsychology in South Africa.

Method: Information was gathered from literature searches, personal communication, and the authors' experiences while occupying relevant professional and academic positions for over 30 years.

Results: Since its origins in the 1950s, the development of neuropsychology in South Africa has faced numerous challenges, against a background of extreme sociocultural and socioeconomic disparity in the country that is on-going.

Generally representative is representative of none: commentary on the pitfalls of IQ test standardization in multicultural settings.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to address the issue of IQ testing within the multicultural context, with a focus on the adequacy of nationwide population-based norms vs. demographically stratified within-group norms for valid assessment purposes. Burgeoning cultural diversity worldwide creates a pressing need to cultivate culturally fair psychological assessment practices.

Mild traumatic brain injuries in early adolescent rugby players: Long-term neurocognitive and academic outcomes.

Background: Information is scant concerning enduring brain injury effects of participation in the contact sport of Rugby Union (hereafter rugby) on early adolescents.

Objective: The objective was prospectively to investigate differences between young adolescent male rugby players and non-contact sports controls on neurocognitive test performance over 3 years and academic achievement over 6 years.

Method: A sample of boys from the same school and grade was divided into three groups: rugby with seasonal concussions (n = 45), rugby no seasonal concussions (n = 21) and non-contact sports controls (n = 30).

Vulnerability in speed of visuomotor ability.

The aim of this report is to illustrate the utility of neurocognitive testing as an investigative method to establish the presence of persistent effects of concussive brain injury amongst players of a contact sport with high risk of such injury. The report reviews the outcomes of three previously published neuropsychological studies on South African Rugby Union (hereafter 'rugby') from school through to the national adult level. The diagnostic utility of differential effects per se, as well as differential practice effects on visuomotor function, as a means of distinguishing poorer neurocognitive outcome for rugby versus demographically equivalent noncontact sports players, is described.

Practice effects reveal visuomotor vulnerability in school and university rugby players.

This article reports on three pre- versus post-season prospective studies in which male university and high school contact sport players predominantly of Rugby Union (hereafter rugby) were compared with age, education, and IQ equivalent non-contact sport controls on the ImPACT (Immediate Postconcussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) test. All analyses revealed a relative absence of practice effects on the Visual Motor Speed (VMS) composite for contact sport groups compared with controls. The VMS data for rugby players from each study were pooled and subjected to additional analysis (Rugby, n = 145; Controls, n = 106).