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Writer's pictureDr Ilene Naomi Rusk

How to Analyze Your Cognitive Health Status Quickly and Effectively

Updated: Feb 8



The brain and mental health movements have recently blossomed with more self-help tools and tips available to the public than ever before. According to the World Health Organization, mental health diagnoses have increased by a striking  25% after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our post-COVID culture is newly attuned to the deep importance of taking care of our minds and bodies, and putting in the work to give our minds  just as much attention as our bodies. Finally.


There are a myriad of reasons to pay attention to our cognitive status, and it can be easy to get overwhelmed. In a world rampant with social media self-diagnoses, receiving a neurologically comprehensive, science-backed, data-driven mental health assessment matters. In fact, a high-quality evaluation can be the missing puzzle piece needed to connect you with the right kind of mental health support and improve your daily life.


Which Brain Assessment Can I Do at Home?

Our team at The Brain and Behavior Clinic provides expertise in the assessment and treatment of a broad spectrum of neurological and mental health conditions including TBI and memory assessments, depression and anxiety treatment, ADHD treatment, treatment for various dementias, and more. Additionally, we now offer a digital brain health assessment tool that accurately quantifies brain function and brain health for both patients and providers. This inexpensive cognitive assessment and health questionnaire only takes about forty minutes to complete and is delivered and scored entirely online.


What sets our clinic’s cognitive assessment apart from other mental health assessments is both the quality and methodology of the program. This evaluation takes over twenty-five years of neurological research, as well as three hundred peer-reviewed studies into account when assessing each patient’s condition. The tool is based on both advanced brain mapping and brain imaging tools (fMRI). Additionally, this assessment goes beyond the common, simple surveying method of diagnosing mental conditions with yes or no questions, and instead uses research backed cognitive activities and questions to elevate the accuracy of the diagnostic tool while removing patient biases.


How Does This Brain Assessment Work?

This thorough cognitive screening assessment uses commonly known neurological activities that have been accepted by medical and scientific professionals who work in the realm of cognitive evaluation. The process employs digital versions of well-known activities to grasp the cognitive mental standing of each participant. For example, the Corsi Block Tapping Task is a block-tapping task that has been used in psychological studies for over a quarter of a century, and is one of the most tantamount nonverbal tasks used to assess patient cognition.


This assessment converts the Corsi Block Tapping Task, as well as many other psychologically beneficial tasks, into a fully virtual format where each participant can complete the task thoroughly. After the patient completes each task, their provider is able to gain helpful data on the cognitive state of their client. Each of the twelve tasks that this assessment includes are specifically associated with one of twelve brain regions, giving providers much needed cognitive insights.






In addition to the activities, this assessment also includes a patient health questionnaire that screens for many well-recognized mental disorders with comprehensive, research-based raw responses that are recorded via a sliding scale. Directly after completing the virtual assessment provided, patients will receive an in-depth yet easy-to-read cognitive assessment report in mere minutes.



The report will show patients where they stand relative to others in their age and gender groups, as well as give providers valuable clinical information to help determine the strengths of each patient. The report will also record the highest areas of need to help you both form a treatment wellness plan and improve well-being. This evaluation uses a longitudinal monitoring system that gives patients and providers a cognitive assessment report that grows alongside the patient’s improvement overtime. 


Why Use This Mental Health Assessment Tool?

The value of this method is clear. Each report includes unlimited problem sets within each task and has been clinically proven to be accurately sensitive to each patient’s change in performance. With the inclusion of this fully personalized baseline, data can be gathered over-time and the patient’s past and present cognitive states can be compared and evaluated.


Additionally, this tool can thoroughly measure the tangible impact of external interventions like medication, psychotherapy, sleep habits, changes to lifestyle, and additional wellness habits. As the patient and provider work together to track the daily habits of the patient, the impact of such habits on the patient’s cognitive performance and overall mental health can be precisely observed. This tool is especially useful when it comes to helping patients who suffer from dementia or other forms of cognitive decline. The digital tracker is a huge asset when it comes to monitoring the cognitive performance of patient’s in early and later stages of cognitive decline as the patient continues to age.


Additional Benefits of This Assessment:

  1. It provides complement symptom-based information, alongside objective and quantitative data, for the best full analysis of a patient’s cognitive state.

  2. This tool will strengthen the provider’s decision-making surrounding the best individualized treatment plan for each patient.

  3. This highly detailed cognitive analysis can help facilitate conversations between patients, their friends and family members, and their caregivers about their brain health with clean, hard data to support a patient’s feelings and internal experience. 

  4. Using this evaluation tool will help to screen each patient for the need for more comprehensive evaluations to identify strengths and deficits.

  5. The assessment itself is quick and inexpensive, and the results can be useful for years after the initial evaluation is completed.


It’s Important to Understand The State of Your Brain Health

At The Brain and Behavior Clinic, there isn’t anything we desire more than a long and mentally healthy life for patients in our care. This tool is simply one of many that we’d like to be able to provide for those in need of a thorough and comprehensive cognitive care plan. We encourage both those seeking care and providers alike to investigate the tools our clinic can provide for an enhanced, enriched, healthier mental experience for everyone.

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