The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a tool that helps healthcare professionals detect mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease in people. A 2021 study found that it is a better measure of cognitive function than the MMSE. It consists of 30 questions that take 10–12 minutes to accomplish.
The Mini-Cog© is a fast and simple screening test to help detect dementia in its early stages. In just 3 minutes, Mini-Cog© can help doctors and other professional care providers identify possible cognitive impairment in older patients.
The Mini-Cog test.
A third test, known as the Mini-Cog, takes 2 to 4 minutes to administer and involves asking patients to recall three words after drawing a picture of a clock. If a patient shows no difficulties recalling the words, it is inferred that he or she does not have dementia.
The five-minute cognitive test (FCT) was designed to capture deficits in five domains of cognitive abilities, including episodic memory, language fluency, time orientation, visuospatial function, and executive function.
Abstract. Introduction: The five-word test (5WT) is a serial verbal memory test with semantic cuing. It is proposed to rapidly evaluate memory of aging people and has previously shown its sensitivity and its specificity in identifying patients with AD.
Mini-Cog - The Mini-Cog is a 3-minute test consisting of a recall test for memory and a scored clock-drawing test. It can be used effectively after brief training and results are evaluated by a health provider to determine if a full-diagnostic assessment is needed.
Neuropsychological evaluation.
This process lasts around four hours and includes a series of in-depth analyses, such as one-on-one interviews and written and oral tests. These assessments are designed to gauge specific cognitive functions, like attention, problem solving, spatial skills, and executive functioning.
Simplistically, the test involves an examiner putting his or her hands into a specific shape — for example, interlocking the fingers in a particular manner — and then having the patient try to mimic it. Patients are evaluated on how well they can reproduce the specific shape created by the examiner.
Short-term memory/delayed recall: Five words are read. The test-taker is asked to repeat them. After completing other tasks, the person is asked to repeat each of the five words again. If they can't recall them, they're given a cue of the category that the word belongs to.
Background: The seven minute screen (7MS) is a compilation of the temporal orientation test, enhanced cued recall, clock drawing, and verbal fluency. It has been shown to be useful for detecting Alzheimer's disease in a population of patients with memory complaints.
Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)
This test is currently the most widely used cognitive assessment tool. It takes 10-15 minutes to administer. It is scored out of 30, with a score below 24 suggesting dementia. It is used to assess global cognitive status.
The 8 A's consist of: anosognosia, agnosia, aphasia, apraxia, altered perception, amnesia, apathy and attentional deficits. Loved ones with dementia may not always show or experience each A, because the signs of dementia appear different for every person.
The three-word recall is a means of testing short-term memory. One of the first signs of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, is difficulty with short-term memory. Asking for these words to be repeated after the distraction of drawing the clock challenges memory.
The Self-Administered Gerocognitive Exam (SAGE) is a brief self-administered cognitive screening instrument used to identify mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from any cause and early dementia.
The Self-Administered Gerocognitive Exam, known as SAGE, is a brief, pen-and-paper cognitive assessment tool designed to detect the early signs of cognitive, memory, or thinking impairments. The test evaluates your thinking abilities.
To our knowledge, this study is the first to show a relationship between time spent in the supine sleep position and dementia.
MMSE: This test is graded by severity and has been used extensively in memory clinics to measure response to medication and guide decisions: 20-26 = mild cognitive impairment; 10-20 = moderate impairment; and less than 10 indicates severe impairment.
A score of 25 or lower (from maximum of 30) is considered significant cognitive impairment.
WWT is conducted by having participants walk on the GAITRite walkway, while reciting alternate letters of the alphabet aloud for one trial. They were instructed to pay equal attention to walking and talking to avoid task prioritization.
You have trouble following a conversation. You find it hard to make decisions, finish a task or follow instructions. You start to have trouble finding your way around places you know well. You begin to have poor judgment.
Blood tests are also used for genetic tests which can reveal, for example, if someone has the defective genes usually present in frontotemporal dementia (Pick's disease) or young onset Alzheimer's. Genetic blood tests look for abnormalities in DNA, particularly gene mutations which can cause permanent change to DNA.
Health care providers often use a brief test such as the Short Test of Mental Status, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) or the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). More detailed testing may help determine the degree memory is impaired.