Everything you need to know concerning cognitive testing

Did you know that it is essential to perform some tests to help determine your brain function? The answer is yes because a brain function test is recommended, especially when determining your verbal, memory, reasoning, and attention abilities. The performed cognitive test is commonly performed during your annual examinations. Doing so helps your care provider in proper decision-making while deciding the best treatment for you. Therefore, if you are interested in undergoing a brain function test, cognitive testing Atlanta specialists provide testing and results to determine the course of your treatment. Your physician or care provider analyses your results to help determine the best treatment to help improve your brain function. It also enhances the parts of your brain function that affect your ability to thrive or affects your mental health. Read on to understand more about cognitive testing.

What is cognitive testing?

Generally, cognitive testing enables you to complete specific tasks that determine the thinking processes in your brain. The results of cognitive testing help show the current ability of your brain in areas including verbal ability, short-term memory, concentration and attention, working memory, the processing speed of your brain, and verbal reasoning and deduction. A comparison between the extensive database and your cognitive test results is made to help determine average scores among most people.

When do you need cognitive testing?

In most cases, cognitive testing is performed when you are experiencing symptoms that suggest you might have concerns with your brain’s function. For instance, people diagnosed with ADHD usually have poor working memory. And therefore, face difficulties when planning activities, adhering to instructions, and the following information to guide their behavior. Cognitive testing is also not only used for people with symptoms because psychiatric consultants perform cognitive testing on all patients because your ability to pay attention, reason, communicate, and memory are essential in determining your health and quality of life.

Therefore, your caregiver requires an objective and validated measure of your cognitive abilities to determine areas of focus or those that require help. And by undergoing and carefully analyzing your cognitive test results, your care provider determines the specific treatment that meets your individual needs. Regular cognitive tests during your treatment help determine your progress and if any therapy adjustments are needed.

What type of cognitive testing will you receive?

In most cases, neurological tests provide a reliable and valid assessment. You can also do the tests online because most people find it entertaining doing them this way compared to written tests. Usually, your care provider may decide to customize your assessment to particular tests or perform twelve core cognitive tasks. But the core tasks do not measure your IQ levels. The test produces a C-score that represents your overall ability. Of importance to note is that traditional IQ tests usually do not provide accurate scores. Therefore, using information obtained from various tasks helps determine the overall performance of your brain.

Cognitive testing helps measure your brain function in terms of memory, verbal ability, and attention. Therefore, if you are interested in undergoing cognitive testing, you can start by calling Psychiatric Consultants of Atlanta today.