Author: Dr. Ghanem Nafissa

Institution: University of Constantine 2 – Abdelhamid Mehri, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Speech-Language Pathology

Target Audience: Second-Year Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) Undergraduate Students

Academic Year: 2025–2026

Overview & Course Description:

This pedagogical polycopy serves as a comprehensive foundational manual designed specifically for speech-language pathology students. It bridges the gap between fundamental neurobiology and clinical practice, offering the scientific tools required to understand, assess, and rehabilitate disorders of speech, language, voice, and swallowing.

Structured across 15 comprehensive lectures, the handbook covers:

• Structural & Functional Organization: Central and peripheral nervous systems, autonomic pathways, and detailed exploration of cranial nerves governing articulation and deglutition.
• Cellular Neurophysiology: Structural and functional roles of neurons and glial cells, resting membrane potential, action potential dynamics, and synaptic transmission via neurotransmitters and neuroendocrine interactions.
• Brain Specialization & Neural Development: Hemispheric lateralization, language localization (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas), embryological neural stages, critical developmental periods, and neuroplasticity.
• Acquired Neurological Conditions & Diagnostics: Pathophysiology of stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI), cortical disconnection syndromes, and clinical application of diagnostic modalities (MRI, CT, fMRI, PET, EEG).
• Neurodegenerative & Pediatric Disorders: Detailed clinical and therapeutic insights into Dementias, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and Landau-Kleffner Syndrome (LKS).
• Motor Control Pathways: Structural mechanisms of the pyramidal and extrapyramidal systems and corticobulbar tracts in coordinating voluntary and involuntary speech-motor performance.

To optimize pedagogical utility, each lecture is enriched with clinical vignettes, key takeaways, review questions with model answers, and a trilingual glossary (Arabic, French, and English) to establish precise scientific terminology.