NEUROPSI: A brief neuropsychological test battery in Spanish with norms byage and educational level

The purpose of this research was to develop, standardize, and test the reli ability of a short neuropsychological test battery in the Spanish language. This neuropsychological battery was named "NEUROPSI", and was developed to assess briefly a wide spectrum of cognitive functions, including orientati on, attention, memory, language, visuoperceptual abilities, and executive f unctions. The NEUROPSI includes items that are relevant for Spanish-speakin g communities. It can be applied to illiterates and low educational groups. Administration time is 25 to 30 min. Normative data were collected from 80 0 monolingual Spanish-speaking individuals, ages 16 to 85 years. Four age g roups were used: (1) 16 to 30 years, (2) 31 to 50 years, (3) 51 to 65 years , and (4) 66 to 85 years. Data also are analyzed and presented within 4 dif ferent educational levels that were represented in this sample: (1) illiter ates (zero years of school); (2) 1 to 4 years of school; (2) 5 to 9 years o f school; and (3) 10 or more years of formal education. The effects of age and education, as well as the factor structure of the NEUROPSI are analyzed . The NEUROPSI may fulfill the need for brief, reliable, and objective eval uation of a broad range of cognitive functions in Spanish-speaking populati ons.