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Computerized neuropsychological testing to rapidly evaluate cognition in pediatric patients with neurologic disorders
Brian L Brooks1, Elisabeth M S Sherman
1Alberta Children's Hospital and University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. brian.brooks@albertahealthservices.ca
Insights
Pediatric neurology patients showed significantly lower scores on computerized cognitive tests, specifically CNS Vital Signs. This highlights the utility of these tests for identifying cognitive impairments in children with neurological disorders.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Pediatric Neurology
- Cognitive Assessment
Background:
- Computerized neuropsychological tests offer efficient cognitive screening.
- Assessing cognitive function in pediatric neurology patients is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate performance on the CNS Vital Signs in a large pediatric neurology patient sample.
- To establish normative data for this demographic.
Main Methods:
- A sample of 166 pediatric neurology patients and 281 controls (ages 7-19) completed the CNS Vital Signs.
- Statistical analysis compared performance between groups, calculating Cohen's d effect sizes.
Main Results:
- Neurology patients performed significantly worse across all domains and most subtests.
- Effect sizes ranged from small/medium (memory, reaction time) to very large (psychomotor speed, attention, flexibility, composite score).
- 36.6% of neurology patients met criteria for an uncommon cognitive profile (≥2 scores ≤5th percentile).
Conclusions:
- The CNS Vital Signs effectively differentiates pediatric neurology patients from controls.
- This study provides the first evidence of CNS Vital Signs performance in pediatric neurological disorders, supporting its use in clinical settings.
Abstract:
Computerized neuropsychological tests represent a viable method for rapidly screening cognition. The purpose of this study was to explore performance on the CNS Vital Signs in a large pediatric neurology sample. Participants included 166 neurology patients (mean age, 13.0 years; standard deviation, 3.2) and 281 controls (mean age, 13.2 years; standard deviation, 3.2) between 7 and 19 years. The neurology sample performed significantly worse on all domain scores and nearly all subtest scores. Cohen d effect sizes were small to medium for verbal memory (d= 0.44), visual memory (d= 0.40), and reaction time (d= 0.48) and very large for psychomotor speed (d= 1.19), complex attention (d = 0.94), cognitive flexibility (d = 0.94), and the overall composite score (d = 1.08). Using the criterion for cognitive impairment of 2 or more scores ≤5th percentile, 36.6% of the neurology sample was identified as having an uncommon cognitive profile. This is the first study to demonstrate the performance of pediatric patients with neurologic disorders on CNS Vital Signs.
