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What should I know about cognitive decline?
Cognitive decline occurs naturally as you get older, affecting your memory, thinking, concentration, and language. The speed at which your brain processes information also slows down.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may affect your memory or other aspects of your cognitive abilities, such as your ability to organize tasks or make decisions. While these changes are worrisome, MCI doesn’t stop you from working or socializing. By comparison, dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, leads to progressive changes that interfere with performing normal daily tasks.
What’s involved with a comprehensive cognitive evaluation?
If you’re worried about changes in your cognitive ability, the first step is to meet with the team at Abbey Neuropsychology Clinic and have a comprehensive cognitive evaluation.
A neuropsychological assessment gives you detailed information about your cognitive, emotional, and social functioning. Armed with that information, the team works closely with you to develop intervention strategies.
Your provider at Abbey Neuropsychology Clinic completes a group of tests that carefully evaluate many areas of functioning, including:
- Intelligence
- Memory
- Language
- Visual-spatial abilities
- Fine motor skills
- Learning
- Attention
- Problem-solving ability
- Planning and organization
- Processing speed
Over the course of your testing, they learn about the challenges you face, as well as your strengths, which form the basis for successful intervention.
What therapies help slow down cognitive decline?
The team at Abbey Neuropsychology Clinic offers evidence-based therapies that help slow down cognitive decline. Participating in activities that build your cognitive reserve or therapies designed to retrain your cognitive processes may lead to improvements that last for years.
These are a few examples of the advanced therapies available at Abbey Neuropsychology Clinic:
Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback begins with a quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) to map your brain activity and then uses biofeedback to change patterns of electrical activity and improve nerve activity.
Cogmed Working Memory Training®
Working memory holds pieces of information in your brain just long enough for you to use them. Cogmed is a computerized training problem that boosts your working memory.
Light therapy
Near-infrared light therapy stimulates biological changes at the cellular level, activating energy production and potentially increasing brain chemicals.
Cyclic variations in adaptive conditioning (CVAC)
CVAC consists of a podlike device that activates changes in air pressure to give your body the benefits of exercise without joint stress and intensive physical exertion.
If you or a loved one are worried about cognitive decline, call Abbey Neuropsychology Clinic today.
