Neuropsychologists
Life, Physical, and Social Science
In medical and research settings, the work centers on how injury, illness, or physiological states change thinking and behavior. Patients are interviewed about medical history, then given tests of intelligence, attention, memory, language, learning, and sensorimotor function. Detailed reports from those results support diagnoses such as stroke, head trauma, tumors, degenerative disease, and dementia, and establish baselines for tracking decline or recovery. Treatment programs may be designed, families counseled, and children assessed for learning disabilities with a developmental or organic basis. The work fits people who prefer careful testing, dense written reports, and tracing mental changes back to the brain.
Typical education: Post-Doctoral Training
Annual Median Wage in Field (2025)
$110'840
Median Wage Market Position
$110'840
What you might do
- Assess intelligence, memory, attention, and language
- Write clinical reports from test findings
- Take full medical histories from patients
- Diagnose stroke, trauma, and dementia effects
- Set baselines to track recovery from brain disease
- Explain results and next steps to families
Skills that matter
- Testing memory, attention, and language
- Writing detailed neuropsychological reports
- Interviewing for full medical histories
- Diagnosing injury to the nervous system
- Setting baselines for brain disease
- Reading current neuropsychology research
AI & the future of this role
Test scoring and literature review could become more automated, easing parts of evaluation workflows. Interpreting complex brain-behavior patterns, delivering sensitive feedback, and shaping treatment still rely on expert judgment and clinical accountability.
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Includes O*NET® 30.3 Database information by USDOL/ETA under CC BY 4.0; modified by LostInCareer. Wage/outlook from BLS. Attribution details