Neuropsychology test results

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Loopy Lou

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I just had my phone appointment with the neuropsychologist to discuss my results. Apparently now they don't send out the full report until they've discussed it in an appointment first, so hopefully i'll get the full report in the next couple of weeks. It's measured in percentiles, so 50 would be average, 59 would say that you did better than 59% of people, etc.

For verbal skills, reasoning and general IQ i got 99% so that's good
My processing speed was around 40% which is below the average, but she said she considered that very low for me.
My auditory/verbal memory was just about average. I couldn't remember details of short stories and repeat them, but i have an excellent memory for strings of numbers, so the numbers saved me there.
My word-finding was also pretty low (where they say to you "tell me 10 animals that begin with S" or something along those lines) but she said that would be related to my low processing speed. She said the low processing speed is something that is very common in people with epilepsy, though i'm not sure if she meant epilepsy in general or temporal lobe like i have.
For executive functioning (attention and switching tasks) i did fine on the tasks but when switching it took my brain a little while to get in gear and change direction of thought. I did have a small seizure whilst doing this bit which probably didn't help.

Everything else came back as above average. So basically i think that boils down to i'm smart, but i'm pretty slow about it, so go me! :LOL: I'll look forward to receiving the actual report, the above is just notes i scribbled while i was having my phone appointment.

I wonder how it would compare to the tests i had done back in 2011-2012ish
 
Glad to hear your testing went well LL. Cheers.

My wife had a neuropsych test done last year. The doc called me in to talk to her (the doc) after the testing. She (the doc) was very concerned about my wife - like she should be institutionalized kind of concerned. She thought my wife was 3rd grader level smart. She showed me an example in the testing booklet where she had asked my wife to draw a picture of an analog clock showing the time of "ten minutes before 2" or something like that. My wife drew a picture with the incorrect time. The doc thought my wife was incapable of performing that simple task. I had to look at the picture my wife drew for a minute before I realized what she had done. She had interpreted the instruction as drawing the minute hand on the clock ten minutes back from the number 2 instead of realizing the doc wanted an image of 1:50. Her problem (my wife) isn't that she is stupid, it's that she doesn't process information the way most people do. I've lived with her so long that I can "speak Stacy". :oops:
 
I know what you mean about sometimes having trouble processing things. I may have to think about what someone has said to process and understand it. Also written instructions are problematic for me, but they were even before I started having seizures.

I would like to have one of those tests. Will mention in to my doctor next time I see him.
 
Her problem (my wife) isn't that she is stupid, it's that she doesn't process information the way most people do. I've lived with her so long that I can "speak Stacy". :oops:
We’ve all got our own little ways and I think most of us process information in our own way. I think you need to often really need to know the person to know their ways to understand.

Most neuropsychologists are amazing but sounding a few hours with the person isn’t really going to get them to know that person.
I’ve known my neuropsychologist since end of 2010 as she was part of the team involved in my surgery so she knows me well and my little ways. I don’t speak to her much anymore, usually if I need information to be sent through to the neurologist or am overthinking.
 
It works a bit differently with neuropsychologists here. They do the testing then refer you back to your neurologist with the results, and it's the neuro that decides what to do with them. Waiting lists to see a neuropsychologist here are enormous, and with some it can take years to get an appointment, Currently i have two neuros in two different cities, (neither of which i live in/near!), and the neuropsych. She said she's going to hold off on discharging me until next time i have an appointment in Liverpool, where the specialist neurology centre and she is based.

From the sounds of it she's agreeing with the neuro about another VEEG but this time for 7 or 10 days, until they catch something. I'm not looking forward to that.

Clovis - if you can get the testing, it is well worth doing. They can pinpoint your problem areas and help with ways to deal with it, or identify causes. It can be exhausting mentally though, they take hours. The first time i had tests in around 2011-2012 i had 8 hours worth of testing split into four visits, but this time they didn't need to redo absolutely all of it, so it took one appointment of around 4 hours testing.

Hearing that my problem areas were typical of someone with epilepsy made me feel a lot better, weirdly. It's like now i know it's not my fault that i'm "dopey" and forgetful, and it takes me a while to process things. I know now that i'm not stupid, my brain is just wired differently to normal.
 
Mine was probably different again as I live 4 hours away from the hospital where I had my surgery and the clinic is I had both neuropsychological assessments done while down at the hospital for veeg testing.

The neuropsychologist who did the tests (my neuropsychologists colleague) did them over 2 days so not to tire me out 1st day was the tests then 2nd was chat to get into my head lol. For the pre surgery tests it was to see if I was mentally ready for surgery and for the one in 2015 it was to find out how things were going to get an idea of why I was having trouble remember words. I was pretty stressed at the time which he picked up on.
 
Congrats on the test results! It's interesting to see how our brains work...

I think I did fine on my neuropsych testing (which was about ten years ago, so now, who knows). The one test I was less successful with was a visualization exercise where you had to reproduce a picture from memory. It was just a bunch of random circles and lines and diagonals, but I had a hard time with it. Since I'm a graphic designer, that gave me a chuckle...

Lou, was there something like that on your test?
 
My wife had that 'reproduce an image from memory' as part of her test. She got about 80% of the figure drawn, but the dimensions for various geometric items were not scaled appropriately.
 
The one test I was less successful with was a visualization exercise where you had to reproduce a picture from memory. It was just a bunch of random circles and lines and diagonals, but I had a hard time with it. Since I'm a graphic designer, that gave me a chuckle...
I think I had something similar in both my tests. It was like a house with different shapes in it but the neuropsych would get me to use different colored marker pens. Every so often he'd give me a differet pen and go now use this colour.
I think I would have to do it 3 times, the 1st i got a good look at the picture, the 2nd he started it off with the box (think i saw the picture again) then the 3rd was all on memory. It was only really 1st time I had to change colours.
As you know I'm an overthinker so with my 2nd test i was getting furstrated with myself thinking it wasnt right or good enough. He kept telling me it was ok and there is no wrong answer. I think I wasnt too bad with where some of the shapes went, just not very good at drawing and missed a few.
 
I don't remember using different color markers, but that sounds about right.
 
The one test I was less successful with was a visualization exercise where you had to reproduce a picture from memory. It was just a bunch of random circles and lines and diagonals, but I had a hard time with it. Since I'm a graphic designer, that gave me a chuckle...

Lou, was there something like that on your test?

Yeah, i had to remember these abstract diagrams then draw them again, i was ok with the simple ones, but then i started getting confused when there was two on the page, or when i couldn't remember what direction they were facing. Then about an hour later she asked me to draw what i could remember and i was like "whaaaaaat?" lol. I did better on that one than remembering the short stories though. It was like no matter how much i concentrated it still went in one ear and straight out the other!

I did really well at the numbers one. I had to remember a string of numbers which progressively got longer (and changed each time), i think i got up to 11 or 12 before i started forgetting. Then i had to remember the string of numbers and repeat them backwards, then remember them and put them in the right order. To me, numbers each have a "note" attached to them, like when dialing on a phone, but on the longer strings it was hard to form them in the right note in my mind so i could remember them.

The weird thing is i have no memory whatsoever of having my initial appointment with the neuropsychologist, from when she ordered the tests. When i had the tests done it was an associate that did it. When the NeuroP called me to go over the results i told her i couldn't remember talking to her before, but she had all the info i'd told her. By the time i got off the phone i vaguely remembered getting the transport to the hospital for the appointment because it's really far away, but still can't remember what she looked like or anything about that appointment. Still a total blank. Maybe it'll come back to me next time i see her.

It'll be interesting to read the full report on this, she only went through the bare bones on the phone.
 
Oh I remember the numbers one! I did not like trying to remember them in reverse order. :)

I think I only met my neuropsych twice — on the day of the testing, and then when I went to see her afterwards to discuss the results. Pretty sure it was my neurologist who ordered the test for me.
 
I can't remember doing numbers but my Dad has also done a couple of neuropsych evaluations for his memory, I think he said once he had to remember numbers. I only remember mainly the word ones, given a heap of words to remember then doing other tasks and he'd ask me to repeat the words. At my 2nd evaluation when the neuropsych came in to see me the day after he did the test for a chat and to discuss the results before he left said 'You may remember i gave you a list of words to remember, how many of those words can you remember?'
I wasn't expecting that but he decided to throw it in lol, I think I didnt do too bad considering I was 1/2 way through a VEEG, sleep deprived and coming of meds.
 
I've never had a neuropsych test, though my neuro once said I could if I wanted to test my memory. Do you recommend them?
 
I had my tests done in order to set a benchmark -- so that if later I felt that I was experiencing significant problems in cognitive functioning (due to meds or seizures or age or whatever), then I would have a way of pinpointing the areas of the brain that were changing, and measuring the degree of change. That information can be helpful when trying to determine the cause and come up with a remedy or workaround.
 
Yeah, if you have insurance to cover the cost of it, having a neuropsych test done can only be helpful in the long term - establishing a baseline to measure cognitive performance. We plan to re-test my wife in a year. Retesting would probably be on a longer timeline for most, but my wife's results from the initial testing were so poor the doc wanted to keep a close watch on it.
 
Took my test yesterday. Felt like I did ok. Recalling the two short stories didn’t go well. I’d like to try again. I was trying to hard to remember details rather than the story. The toughest was the instructor gave me 3 random letters (AGV) then a random number (81) I was asked to count backwards by three from the number (81). When she tapped the table I attempted to recall the 3 letters (AGV). Huge Fail. Not sure I could’ve done that on my best day. Results next week. Should be interesting.
 
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