Neuropsychological evaluation or cognitive evaluation is a diagnostic method created specifically to explore people’s cognitive functioning, providing valuable information that can go unnoticed in other scanning methodologies, so it is used in a complementary way to neuroimaging techniques or radiological scans.
The technique allows the study of the activity and functioning of the cognitive systems of the brain through the exploration of superior human abilities, for this reason it is performed in both patients with brain damage and brain damage, in order to know the degree of intellectual change, and in people who wish to check their mental functioning during the different stages of life.
- No two patients are the same.
- In each person’s analysis a whole universe should be considered that is particular.
- So neuropsychological evaluation is always flexible and should be adapted to each clinical case.
- So it is not possible to establish a restrictive classification of types of cognition.
- We will discuss some of the characteristics of the possible objectives of this evaluation:.
The main objective of many neuropsychological evaluations is simply to know in depth how the patient’s care, memory, language and certain functions called executive functions – such as planning, prevention, control, supervision, organization – work. To do this, standardized tests are carried out that record both quantitative and qualitative information.
In this sense, it is very important, if not the most important, for the professional to report his findings both of the patient’s results in the tests that have been applied to him, his behavior and the way in which he performed them. In other words, interpreting the numerical score obtained during a test by a person with intellectual changes is important, but it is equally important that the professional also evaluates the behavior that appears during the performance of the tasks.
In most cases the information provided by the patient’s relatives is essential, since in some psychological changes the patient is not aware of changes in their intellectual functions, so the data that the people who live with the patient can provide are much necessary for the development of a complete neuropsychological profile of the patient , which considers the painting as a whole.
This type of neuropsychological evaluation is more common in children, younger children can perform a series of battery tests to determine their level of cognitive maturity and performance, these tests should examine the child’s inhibitory control, as well as the multiple social and multitasking skills. The ultimate goal is to adapt the interpersonal strategies that children use in their daily lives.
One of the most widely used tests in the world is the BANFE battery, an acronym for neuropsychological battery of executive functions and frontal lobes that evaluates executive functions through 15 processes, grouped into three specific brain areas: orbital, anterior and prefrontal dorsolateral. The advantage is that it provides an overall index and a specific index for each region evaluated.
Visuospatial skills are highly applied and useful in our daily lives, they allow us to represent, analyze and mentally manipulate objects, without them it would be impossible, for example, to fill a glass of water without spilling it, because it requires perception. of space and the prediction of the amount of liquid that will enter.
In many cases the failures that occur in our actions appear to be visual problems, but sometimes the situation has little to do with the main organs of visual perception: the eyes, on the contrary the problems are related to the later stages of information. processing, that is, perception processes that relate to specific areas of visual information processing in the cerebral cortex.
Some neuropsychological tests may be used to evaluate this function. Examples include tasks that present a series of overlapping and intertwined figures that need to be resolved, as well as testing Luria’s 15 objects and clocks.
As you may have noticed, typical neuropsychological evaluation involves measuring various aspects of cognition, including overall intellectual capacity, language, personality and behavior, attention, memory, and other high-level performance skills, depending on each case and patient needs. some skills are analyzed more deeply than others.
Neuropsychological evaluation has many applications and uses. These include the ability to identify impaired areas and cognitive functions. For example, disorders or memory problems that are not strong enough to have an impact on daily life would never be detected if more sensitive neuropsychological tests were not possible.
In fact, neuropsychological batteries are often the only tools available to a professional to detect certain pathologies early, so they are widely used in the elderly, for the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease or in attentional changes related to diabetes and alcoholism.
In addition, the test allows to differentiate between possible diagnoses, this is what we call differential diagnosis of similar symptoms and more than one clinical picture, that is, neuropsychological evaluation is the key to differentiating diseases, being able to determine when the cognitive impairment of the patient is the result of a stroke or the result of a deep depression, for example.
Finally, it should be noted that it is essential not to confuse neuropsychological evaluation with the simple administration of neuropsychological tests, the evaluation is not only that, there is the administration of tests and batteries, but it is only a phase of a complete neuropsychological evaluation.