UA test battery faster way to assess cognitive abilities of Down syndrome patients
Posted on 30. Aug, 2010 by Aruna Ram Kumar in Health
US researchers say that a new UA test battery devised and developed by American researchers can actually assess the benefit of drug intervention and behavioral help besides predicting life trajectory of Down syndrome patients.
The tests hardly take a couple of hours and as compared to several days taken in the past to assess cognitive abilities, it’s pretty much quicker. The test battery passes the person through a series of computer-based exercises, however, that are non-language dependent and gives the clinicians and therapists a new device that helps them to determine life and developmental trajectory of Down syndrome patients in addition to helping them devise suitable drug as well as the behavioral interventions.
The battery of tests has actually been validated in the study published in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
However, the tasks in the tests are prudently designed to understand the functions of respective brain regions and are independent of other brain regions to perform the respective task. The UA test battery was devised by Neuroscientists in the Down Syndrome Research Group at University of Arizona and collaborated with researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Emory University.
