Clinical neuropsychologists need a standard preliminary observational examination of cognitive functions

摘要

The clinical neuropsychologist is the specialist who makes diagnosis of cognitive function impairments and infers the relationship between cognitive impairments and the underlying brain damage. Clinical interview with the patient and psychometric tests are the two fundamental instruments available to the neuropsychologist. Certainly, psychometric tests are the core method, however, many clinicians underline the importance of carrying out a preliminary clinical interview during a neuropsychological assessment, talking with the patient and observing her/his behavior in order to identify signs and symptoms of cognitive impairments (Lezak et al., 2004; Hebben and Milberg, 2009). Doing so, expert observers can identify deficits of many cognitive domains (Evans, 2003). Although this clinical practice is commonly adopted, it remains poorly elucidated and it is usually described under vague terms like “informal examination.” Indeed, there is not a standard procedure utilized to observe, register, quantify, interpret (i.e., what cognitive domain is impaired when we observe a specific qualitative data), and report cognitive data detected at the stage of the preliminary interview.