Cognitive Decline - how do you measure

The CERAD-TS score serves as a test for evaluating cognitive decline.

What does the score tell you?

Ageing comes with the risk of dementia and cognitive decline.

Cognitive decline is progressive and often comes without awareness on the part of the person undergoing the change.

It is therefore necessary to create an objective test that can tell you if there is decline and the severity.

The CERAD-TS, short form for Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease - Total Score, is a cognitive assessment tool used to evaluate the severity of cognitive impairment.

Researchers developed it as part of a comprehensive test battery that measures different domains of cognitive function. These domains include memory, language, visual construction, and executive function.

The test typically starts with a word list memory test, where the participant must recall as many words as possible from a list after multiple exposures.

Next, there is a delayed recall task. The same list of words must be remembered after a time interval.

Recognition tasks, where the participant identifies previously seen words while being distracted, further assess memory retention.

Visual and spatial skills are assessed by asking participants to copy geometric figures.

Verbal fluency is tested by asking the participant to name objects and generate words in specific categories within a time limit.

Then, the researchers create a composite score that provides a broad measure of cognitive performance. Taken repeatedly over time, you can get a sense of the decline.

Naturally, you might want to slow down or reverse the decline.

Commonly accepted wisdom is that reversing is harder. Slowing down is still feasible. The answer to slow down, ironically, lies in the very things they are testing - memory, language and so on.

The more you practice these things and keep challenging yourself, the sharper your brain will stay.

It is not my intention to give false hope. Cognitive decline is progressive. But the brain is also neuroplastic. It will respond to stimulus, especially if you challenge it.

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