[The twenty-first century as a neuropsychology era]

This article reviews how neuropsychology, in the French-speaking world, has evolved as a discipline focused on research, teaching and clinical work. The article targets the last 30 years as this corresponds to the time at which the Société de Neuropsychologie de Langue Française (French-Speaking Neuropsychological Society) was created. The review addresses how the cognitive neuropsychology approach and the advent of brain imaging have shaped the field of neuropsychology in recent years. It presents the status of the discipline in the main French-speaking countries (where neuropsychology is currently developed) including France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada. It also analyzes a number of indicators that reflect the vitality of the discipline and its cohesion as a science and as a clinical domain. These indicators include the creation of specialized journals, organization of scientific meetings, accessibility to training programs in neuropsychology, development of discipline-oriented clinical programs, and the increase in scientific productivity. The Quebec academic environment is used as an illustration, whereby structured clinical doctoral training programs that meet national standards in neuropsychology were implemented to train clinical neuropsychologists. Finally, the authors emphasize the major role that the discipline is likely to play at different levels of society in the near future.