NUCOG
The NUCOG is a cognitive screening tool first developed in the Neuropsychiatry Unit in 2000. It is a pen-and-paper cognitive screening tool that combines a thorough coverage of major cognitive domains (attention, memory, language, executive and visuospatial function) with relative brevity and ease of use.
Validated in a wide variety of psychiatric, neurologic and general medical populations, NUCOG provides a multidimensional profile of an individual's cognitive status. When integrated with a clinical assessment, this can greatly assist in the diagnosis and management of cognitive disorders and serve as a guide to more in-depth formal neuropsychological testing.
The NUCOG can be used and administered by psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, medical practitioners and other allied health practitioners. It is in widespread use throughout Australia, particularly in psychiatric and neurological settings. It is published in a paper format by ACER Press Ltd and can be accessed at this link.
Why use the NUCOG? The NUCOG provides multidimensional scoring, covers areas of cognitive function that other tools neglect (executive functioning, spatial memory), is portable and straightforward to use with minimal training. The NUCOG is suitable for use in general medical, neurological, psychiatric and geriatric settings.
NUCOG ON IPAD
The NUCOG is now available in a stand-alone format on the iPad. The current version of the NUCOG replaces the need for pencil and paper testing, with subjects able to write directly on the iPad's screen in spatial and written tasks.
Find out more about the iPad NUCOG here, or press the button below to order it directly from iTunes.
If you would like to learn more about the NUCOG (including validation of the tool and its use in specific populations), or if you have specific NUCOG research ideas or plans to use the tool in other populations, reach out to us:
NUCOG research may be found here:
- Utility and validity of a brief cognitive assessment tool in patients with epileptic and non-epileptic seizures — Read
- Differential putaminal morphology in Huntington's disease, frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease — Read
- We have also shown that NUCOG scores correlate with ocular-motor biomarkers in this disorder, in this paper.
- Subcortical volumetric reductions in adult Niemann-Pick type C: a cross-sectional study. Am J Neuroradiol, in press.
- Abel et al. Saccadic eye movement characteristics in adult Niemann-Pick type C disease: relationships with disease severity and brain structural measures.
