The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog) is a brief

neuropsychological assessment Neuropsychological assessment was traditionally carried out to assess the extent of impairment to a particular skill and to attempt to determine the area of the brain which may have been damaged following brain injury or neurological illness. Wi ...

used to assess the severity of cognitive symptoms of

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

. It is one of the most widely used cognitive scales in clinical trials and is considered to be the “gold standard” for assessing antidementia treatments. The ADAS-Cog is one half of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS), which also contains a non-cognitive subscale (ADAS-Noncog), which includes 10 tasks which assess mood and behavioural changes which may occur in Alzheimer's disease and other forms of

. The ADAS-Cog consist of 11 questions: *Word Recall Task *Naming Objects and Fingers *Following Commands *Constructional Praxis *Ideational Praxis *Orientation *Word Recognition Task *Remembering Test Directions *Spoken Language *Comprehension *Word-Finding Difficulty

Different versions

Since its original creation in 1980s there have been many alternate versions of the ADAS-Cog created for various reasons. A review found 31 modified versions of the ADAS-Cog, these include: *ADAS-Cog-IRT: Uses the standard 11 items from the ADAS-Cog but calculates the score based on

item response theory In psychometrics, item response theory (IRT) (also known as latent trait theory, strong true score theory, or modern mental test theory) is a paradigm for the design, analysis, and scoring of tests, questionnaires, and similar instruments measur ...

. Using this method each question in the test is given a different value based on the difficulty, which is determined by how frequently it is answered correctly or incorrectly by a large reference group of participants. *ADAS-Cog Plus: Developed to be more responsive to the early stage deficits seen is

mild cognitive impairment Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a neurocognitive disorder which involves cognitive impairments beyond those expected based on an individual's age and education but which are not significant enough to interfere with instrumental activities of ...

. It includes the standard ADAS-Cog with additional tests to assess

executive function In cognitive science and neuropsychology, executive functions (collectively referred to as executive function and cognitive control) are a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for the cognitive control of behavior: selecting and succ ...

and day-to-day function. *VADAS-Cog: The VADAS-Cog is a variant the ADAS-Cog adapted to assess people with

vascular dementia Vascular dementia (VaD) is dementia caused by problems in the supply of blood to the brain, typically a series of minor strokes, leading to worsening cognitive abilities, the decline occurring piecemeal. The term refers to a syndrome consisting ...

. It consists of the standard ADAS-Cog with additional measures for

attention Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether considered subjective or objective, while ignoring other perceivable information. William James (1890) wrote that "Att ...

working memory Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold information temporarily. It is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior. Working memory is often used synonymously with short-term memory, ...

and verbal fluency.

References

{{Reflist Dementia Alzheimer's disease