A Neuropsychological-Based Test Battery for a Reliable and Comprehensive Characterization of Human Behavior and Performance

Abstract

Cognition is defined as the mental functions by which knowledge is learned, accessed, retained, retrieved, and utilized. It involves diverse abilities and domains such as attention, memory, executive functions, language, visuospatial processing, and social cognition. Current evidence shows that cognitive abilities might change with age. Normal ageing is associated with structural and functional brain changes leading to a gradual reduction of cognitive performance in one or more domains. The increased life expectancy and increased percentage of elderly in the community calls for more efforts to establish a better understanding of ageing related cognitive decline, and to better characterize cognitive decline in healthy ageing compared to cognitive impairments in neurodegenerative diseases. Neuropsychological testing is widely used in the clinical setting as a diagnostic tool to evaluate cognitive performance in subjects with high risk of developing dementia and other cognitive impairments, or for establishing disease-specific cognitive/behavioral profiles. However, these neuropsychological measures have been shown to be sensitive to ethnicity, culture, sensory and cognitive abilities, education level, and other co-morbidities. Existing tools and applications to test cognitive decline in MENA populations are scarce. Hence, this project aims to design and implement a comprehensive computerized neuropsychological test battery adapted for Arabic populations using classic and novel tasks. Overall, this project aims to bridge the gap in neuropsychological testing in the MENA region.

Date of Award	15 Dec 2023
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Mohamed Seghier (Supervisor)