Description of Psychological, Neuropsychological and Neurophysiological Tests

Psychological testing

The psychosocial assessment may include screening for depression, anxiety, stress, and substance abuse, medication affects and screening for risk activities relating to Hepatitis C and HIV. Psychological test items include standardized tests of mood state, sleep, emotional intelligence and personality that have been examined in healthy and clinical populations (Niedermeyer & Lopes da Silva, 1999).

Neurophysiological (Brain Function) and Neuropsychological testing

The psychophysiological tests provide a direct index of neural function. The tests measure both baseline tonic and phasic (event related) processing under varying cognitive load. The tests utilized include (note some of these test overlap with the neuropsychology tests providing simultaneous measure of cognitive and electroencephalographic function):
•  Tonic eyes-closed EEG - coherence, phase, amplitude measures (Niedermeyer & Lopes da Silva, 1999)
•  Tonic eyes-open EEG - coherence, phase, amplitude measures (Sutton et al., 1965)
•  Auditory Oddball (a Continuous Performance Task) Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) - background and target ERPS (Clark et al., 1997)
•  Visual Working Memory / Sustained Attention (a Continuous Performance Task) Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) - backgrounds (Boucsein, 1992)
•  Electrodermal Activity - tonic baseline and phasic measures (or computed automated equivalents; Gordon et al., 2003)

The neuropsychological assessment covers the following sensorimotor and cognitive domains:
•  sensorimotor control and coordination
•  executive function
•  vigilance and sustained attention
•  visual spatial processing
•  verbal fluency and language
•  nonverbal and verbal memory
•  inform ation processing speed

Neuropsychological tests include the following traditional tests (see Lezak, 1995 for most descriptions) that have been well validated in the scientific literature (Clark et al., 1997; Fallgatter et al., 2004; Riccio et al., 2000).
•  Finger Tapping Test
•  Visual spatial memory (Corsi Blocks)
•  Maze (Executive Function) task
•  Trail Making A & B (switching of attention)
•  Stroop colour and word naming
•  Forwards and Backwards Digits Span short term and working memory tasks
•  Vigilance and sustained attention continuous performance tasks (Working Memory, Oddball, Go NoGo) (Baddeley et al., 1993)
•  Verbal memory, learning, recall and recognition (e.g., RAVLT)
•  Speed and Capacity of Language Processing (SCOLP, spot the real word) (Milner, 1986)
•  Phonemic (FAS) Fluency (e.g., COWAT)
•  Semantic (Animal) Fluency
•  Simple and choice reaction time (Block et al., 1999)
•  Time estimation (Schatz & Browndyke, 2002)
•  Symptom validity testing (inadequate effort)

Further details

		Psychological Tests
		Neuropsychological Tests
		Neurophysiological (Brain Function) Tests
		Test Norms - Government and Medical Accreditation

References

Baddeley, A, Emslie, H, and Nimmo-Smith, I (1993). The Spot-the-Word test: a robust estimate of verbal intelligence based on lexical decision. British Journal of Clinical Psychology , 32 , 55-65.

Block, RA, Zakay, D, and Hancock, PA (1999). Developmental Changes in Human Duration Judgments: A Meta-Analytic Review. Developmental Review , 19 , 183-211.

Boucsein, W (1992). Electrodermal Activity. Plenum Press, New York, pp. 1-442.

Clark, CR, Orr, RS, Wright, EK, and Weber, DL (1997). Working memory updating to visual verbal stimuli: a high resolution ERP study. K.Koga, K.Nagata, and K.Hirata (Eds.), Brain Topography Today. Elsevier Science, Japan, Tokyo, pp. 173-178.

Fallgatter, AJ, Ehlis, AC, Seifert, J, Strik, WK, Scheuerpflug, P, Zillessen, KE, Herrmann, MJ, and Warnke, A (2004). Altered response control and anterior cingulate function in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder boys. Clinical Neurophysiology , 115 , 973-981.

Gordon, E, Cooper, N, Rennie, C, Hermens, D, and Williams, LM (2003). Integrative neuroscience: the role of a standardised database. Australasian Psychiatry , 11 , 156-163.

Lezak, MD (1995). Neuropsychological assessment. 3rd edn. Oxford University Press, London, UK.

Milner, AD (1986). Chronometric analysis in neuropsychology. Neuropsychologia , 24 , 115-128.

Niedermeyer, E and Lopes da Silva, FH (1999). Electroencephalography: basic principles, clinical applications and related fields. 4th. Williams & Watkins, Baltimore.

Riccio, C, Reynolds, C, and Lowe, P (2000). Clinical applications of continuous performance tests. Wiley, Chichester.

Schatz, PP and Browndyke, JP (2002). Applications of Computer-based Neuropsychological Assessment. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation , 17 , 395-410.