Study on Color Words Pick-Out Test (CWPT) Available for Classifying the Slight Disorder on the Preclinical Stage of Dementia

Objective: Before concept of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and preclinical stage of dementia (PCSD) our study started to detect slight declines in the brain. The purpose of this study is to clarify the basis of the ability of the devised CWPT (Color Word Pick-out Test) to detect slight disorder and classify it at the MCI and PCSD.

Methods: CWPT is an application of Stroop effect and is including an examination of episodic memory to obtain the evidence and ? activation of the prefrontal lobe using an inferred spectroscopy, ? criterion-related validity using CWPT, WCST, HCL, FAB and MMSE ? sensitivity and specificity using MMSE and CWPT are examined.

Results: ? It is found using a near infrared spectroscopy that CWPT is the most effective test for the brain activation, in comparison with quick repetition of 4-5numbers in order, in reverse order, Kawashima arithmetic drill and KPT (Kana Pick-out Test). ? among the histograms obtained from 22 healthy aging people, only CWPT and WCST show normal distributions besides CWPT has good correlation with WCST. ? Sensitivity and specificity are calculated using MMSE as a true condition and CWPT as a predicted condition for 29 subjects with dementia. Sensitivity becomes 0.963 and specificity becomes 1.0 by the cutoff of the average-1.5SD of CWPT.

Conclusion: As a result of these analyses, it has been suggested that CWPT can be used to classify the level of disorder during MCI and the preclinical stage of dementia.