What Neuropsychological Testing Looks For

Here's some info on neuropsychological testing, the areas they test,
what they look for. I forget what forum I got this from, back when I
used to go to forums a lot.

The list is composed of very much what I experience.

"Cognitive Disorders," what does it mean?

Cognition is the ability of your brain to think, to process and to store
information, to solve problems. Cognitive disorders involve a
difficulty in basic mental operations.

Cognitive disorders can be seen in a number of autoimmune diseases,
such as scleraderma, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue
syndrome, lupus, to name a few. It can also occur in depression and
can also be medication induced. Cognitive impairments typically
progress in a slow and insidious fashion.

Cognitive Areas Affected:

MEMORY - ACQUISITION AND RETRIEVAL

Trouble learning new material; takes longer to learn
Hard to remember plots, characters in books
Forget recent conversations, TV shows, movies, etc.
Forget appointments
Enter a room but forget why
Forget items on shopping trips
Forget to do planned tasks
Lose and misplace things often
Forget names, phone numbers, etc.

ABSTRACT REASONING AND PROBLEM SOLVING

Can no longer successfully perform jobs requiring analytic skills
Trouble following complex arguments or explanations
Don't get jokes
Don't get the point in conversations
Trouble solving riddles, puzzles, etc.
Slowness in understanding analogies, symbols, metaphors, etc.
Too literal or concrete

SLOWED INFORMATION PROCESSING

Quality of work is the same but output is much less
Slow to respond when lots of info is presented
Can't easily deal with tasks having time element, such as deadlines
Difficulty processing info coming from several sources simultaneously

VISUAL/SPATIAL ORGANIZATION

Gets lost driving
Direction Confusion: right/left/north/south
Difficulty understanding diagrams
Hard to visualize objects without a picture

ABILITY TO SHIFT BETWEEN TASKS

Can't rapidly shift from one task to another and back again, forgets
what one was doing before the interruption.
Trouble getting back on task
Trouble shifting from a task to another - hard to leave first task

ATTENTION AND CONCENTRATION

Easily distracted from tasks
Trouble screening out distractions
Can't concentrate on intellectual tasks, reading
Poor recall due to inattention while learning info - it doesn't "encode'

ORGANIZING AND EXECUTING COMPLEX SEQUENCES

Complicated tasks are daunting
Difficulty prioritizing, time management
Overwhelmed by tasks needing to be done - procrastinates
Takes long time doing tasks because of jumping back and forth rather
than completing one before starting another

Credits: Dr. Caruso, neuropsychologist, The Hospital for Joint
Diseases, NYC and Dr. Brian Apatoff, NYC.