Clinical Mentation Evaluation: A Connectomal Approach to Rapid and Comprehensive Assessment

by Michael Hoffmann

Overview

This first-of-its-kind book offers clinicians a unique and comprehensive system of cognitive and behavioral testing that is tiered and context-appropriate for the diagnosis of mental status. Because the challenge nowadays with neurologic syndrome presentations is no longer merely lesion localization, but the degree, extent and nature of a cognitive and/or behavioral impairment, this work proposes a more targeted system of mentation evaluation — one that incorporates behavioral, neurological, neuropsychiatric, and neuropsychological components.

Developed by synthesizing outcomes data from a range of stroke registries, this novel work offers a stepwise, hierarchical approach to mentation evaluation largely determined by level of consciousness and degree of cooperation. Organized across 14 chapters, the book begins with an introduction to the challenges of cognitive and behavioral assessment, as well as a discussion of various clinical presentations ranging from mild behavioral impairment to cognitive reserve and its implications. Subsequent chapters then address various approaches to mental status evaluation and explore how these tests affect brain physiology. The work closes with a unique discussion of the various lay populations that may benefit from cognitive and behavioral evaluation.

Authored by a renowned expert in the field, Clinical Mentation Evaluation: A Connectomal Approach to Rapid and Comprehensive Assessment is an invaluable reference that seeks to revitalize neurological and psychiatric disease measurement within the clinical setting. The work will be of interest to all clinicians in training and clinical practice who regularly, or even periodically, conduct mental status examination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030463236
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	06/01/2020
Edition description:	1st ed. 2020
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael Hoffmann, MD, PhD

Department of Neurology

University of Central Florida

Orlando VA Medical Center

Orlando, FL 32801

USA

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Overview and challenges of cognitive and behavioral assessment.- 2.Neuroanatomical and neurophysiological underpinnings of cognition and behavior: Cerebral networks and intrinsic brain networks.- 3. Clinical presentations: mild behavioral impairment, mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and cognitive reserve and its implications.- 4. Cognitive Reserve.-5. Bedside mental status evaluation: Overview, Coconuts, Cobe 50.- 6. Neuropsychological Testing and computerized cognitive testing.-7. Prefrontal network for executive control of cognition and comportment including the executive control, salience (ventral attention) and semantic appraisal (SAN) networks.- 8. Default Mode Network (mentalizing) and limbic network for explicit episodic memory syndromes.-9. Right dominant frontoparietal network for spatial orientation (Dorsal attention (visuospatial attention).- 10. Left dominant peri-sylvian network for language syndromes (and Language ICN network).- 11. Occipitotemporal network for face and object recognition syndromes (Visual network) occipitoparietal and provincial hub syndromes.- 12. Provincial hub syndromes, temporal, parietal, acquired cultural circuits.-13. Neuroplasticity and other treatment options for cognitive and behavioral neurological syndromes.- 14. Who needs evaluation? The case for you, leadership, executives and people in public office­­­­­­­.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Eduardo De Sousa, MD, FAAN, FAANEM (Mercy NeuroScience Institute)
Description: This cognitive neurology/neuroscience book addresses the evaluation of the mental status exam/ clinical mentation evaluation. Although the buzz word connectomal appears in the title, the book primarily uses known neuroanatomical networks without necessarily using the concept of connectome as a wiring diagram of all neural connections and networks at a micro level.
Purpose: The purpose of this book is not clear. It has little information about connectomics and it primarily discusses cognitive and behavioral assessment using standardized tools, linking aspects of clinical mentation to well-established neuroanatomy and basic neuroscience.
Audience: The audience may include neurologists, medical students, neuropsychology students, neuroscientists, and cognitive/behavioral neurologists.
Features: The book is written in an unorthodox manner, at times in standard paragraphs, but frequently in list format, presenting information in numbered bullet points. At times it feels more like a compilation of notes than a book. It is not a smooth reading experience, and often I had more questions than answers after reading a chapter. I wish there was more information and data on connectomes, as the title implies.
Assessment: Compared to other books on connectomics (Networks of the Brain, Sporns (MIT Press, 2010), or Evolution of the Human Brain: From Matter to Mind, Hofman (Elsevier, 2019)) this book falls short. Compared to other books in cognitive neurology/behavioral neurology (Common Pitfalls in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology: A Case-Based Approach, Josephs (Cambridge University Press, 2020), or The Mental Status Examination Handbook, Mendez (Elsevier, 2022)), this book is thin and superficial.

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