Validation of an integrated method for determining cognitive ability: Implications for routine assessments and clinical trials

摘要

Introduction: Although accurate diagnosis of deficit of mild intensity is critical, various methods are used to assess, dichotomize and integrate performance, with no validated gold standard. This study described and validated a framework for the analysis of cognitive performance.Methods: This study was performed by using the Groupe de Reflexion sur L'Eualuation des Fonctions Executives (GREFEX) database (724 controls and 461 patients) examined by 7 tests assessing executive functions. The first phase determined the criteria for the cutoff scores, the second phase, the effect of test number on diagnostic accuracy and the third phase, the best methods for combining test scores into an overall summary score. Four validation criteria were used: determination of impaired performance as compared to expected one, false-positive rate <5%, detection of both single and multiple impairments with optimal sensitivity.