Psychometric tests in ageing.

In order to detect and analyze early cognitive disorders related to ageing, we selected a battery of psychometric techniques. This battery includes a generally accepted test (the PRM of A. Rey) and new computerized tests (reaction-time test and video objects test) designed by ourselves. We used this battery with aged adults ('normal' and 'impaired' outpatients) and young adults ('normal'). Preliminary results indicate an early decline of spatial structuralization and intellectual associative mechanisms necessary to the efficiency of memory, and also confirm the slowing down in the visual-auditory-motor coordination. The data show how new computerized techniques can be helpful tools to quantify early cognitive disorders.