What are cognitive tests?

(9 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Boca Raton, Florida – 8 July 2024
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. James Galvin, Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami Health System and Miller School of Medicine:
"There are two types of cognitive tests. The first is a screening test. This would be done if there is a suspicion that there might be a problem, either coming from the patient themselves or from some other source. It could be a spouse, an adult child, or the clinician who’s seeing the patient might suspect something’s going on. And so they would do a screening test. The other type of test is, more of a diagnostic test that would be much, much more extensive and detailed. And that would generally only be done if the screening test suggested that there was a problem."
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2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. James Galvin, Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami Health System and Miller School of Medicine:
"The two most common test are something called the Mini-Mental State Exam. And the other one would be the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or sometimes called MoCA. So these both of these tests are brief, about ten minutes. They range from 0 to 30. And there are some cutoff points for both of them that would suggest if you score below that threshold, that there may be a problem. It doesn’t mean that there is a problem. It just suggests that maybe there’s a problem and that further work up is evaluated."
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. James Galvin, Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami Health System and Miller School of Medicine:
"The cognitive test typically is we think about is pencil and paper type of test. I mean sometimes they’re available on tablets or on computers, but when we talk about it we generally just call it a pencil and paper test. So it’s something that could be done in a brief, brief fashion. It could be done by any health care provider, a primary care physician, a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant. So it can be done by anybody. And that’s to give us a sense of what’s the likelihood that there is a problem and should that be followed up with a more comprehensive assessment? The neurologic exam is really, again, generally done by a specialist, and it involves a very detailed physical examination of a person’s performance with brain related tests, so looking at how the cranial nerves, eyes, ears, tongue, sense, taste work, your motor exam, how much muscle bulk do you have?"
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4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. James Galvin, Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami Health System and Miller School of Medicine:
"There are many, many things that can cause some cognitive problems. So first, though age itself does not. So age makes us do things a lot slower. So we move slower, we think slower, but we’re still moving correctly and we’re still thinking correctly. It just takes us longer. That’s age. All the other problems are due to many, many different things. So yes, Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of memory problems, but by far it’s not the only cause. So there are other neurologic diseases that can cause memory problems. But there are also medical conditions that can cause memory problems, particularly if they’re not well cared for."
STORYLINE:
It’s the new chant in Washington politics: “Get a cognitive test!”