Opportunity for international validation of the ALBA and PICNIR cognitive tests for students of the Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University
Cognitive assessment using two very brief tests the Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment (ALBA) and the PICture Naming and Immediate Recall (PICNIR) in Home Country
The purpose of this study will be to assess cognitive deficits in patients and evaluate individuals from the general population in their native language using our two unique Czech tests the Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment (abbreviated as the ALBA from the initial letters) and the PICture Naming and Immediate Recall (abbreviated as the PICNIR from the initial letters). Both tests were developed at University Hospital Kralovske Vinohrady and Third Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic. They take a combined total of only 8 minutes to complete. Evaluations can be conducted either in-person in your home country or, more likely, online through a remote examination. Our previous studies have demonstrated that online examinations yield results comparable to in-person assessments, with no modifications required for the ALBA test and only two minor adjustments needed for the PICNIR test. The paper related to it with more details in Czech (with easy translation into your language using Google or others) is available via this link: Telemedicínské v... | Česká a slovenská neurologie a neurochirurgie (csnn.eu).
Materials and Methods
You can access all necessary materials, including two short instructional videos and downloadable test forms and guides, via this link: [ALBA and PICNIR Tests](https://www.abadeco.cz/learn-and-download-tests/how-can-you-learn-the-alba-and-picnir-tests).
These documents can be easily translated into your native language. You can use freely available translators, e.g., Google translator, https://www.deepl.com/cs/translator or perhaps even better AI ChatGPT or Copilot on Edge from Microsoft, enabling you to fully understand the procedures and tasks involved.
If you understand Czech, you can also view a 10-minute presentation in Czech by my students on a similar topic during the Student Scientific Conference here: [SVK - Syllabova posluchárna 2022 - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=249SVKSyllabovaposlucharna2022) (starting at 3:44:43).
Timeline and Procedures
1. Familiarize Yourself with the Tests
- Study both the ALBA and PICNIR tests thoroughly. In addition, you can come to our outpatient department at building K1, room 9 any working time on Mondays or Tuesdays 9 a.m. – 3.30 p.m. to see patients and ALBA and PICNIR testing in Czech.
2. Watch Educational Videos with English subtitles:
- the ALBA Test https://youtu.be/LyCuWc0-Gro
- the PICNIR Test: https://youtu.be/cbJGtPG-nVA
3. Download test forms and norms for the ALBA and PICNIR tests at Learn and download tests | Abadeco
4. Read these papers on the ALBA and PICNIR cognitive testing:
For more detailed information, you can refer to these two publications on our tests.
Bartoš A, Diondet S. Sensitive Amnesia Light and Brief Assessment (ALBA) is a valid three-minute test of four tasks indicative of mild cognitive deficits. Neurología, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nrl.2023.02.007
Bartoš A, Diondet S. Sensitive written hedgehog PICture Naming and Immediate Recall (PICNIR) as a valid and brief test of semantic and short-term episodic memory for very mild cognitive impairment. Journal of Alzheimer´s disease, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/13872877241289385
5. Translation:
- Translate a) the test forms and b) a guide of both tests from English into your native language.
6. Ethical Approval
- Ethical approval is not mandatory but required if we intend to publish the results. If you agree to participate, you will need to prepare brief documents in English for ethical approval and submit them to the Ethical Committee (EC) of Charles University, 3rd Faculty of Medicine. I can send you some documents in Czech and one in English (likely translated via Google Translate). You may use these as inspiration. Utilize Google Translate to understand their content and structure. You will need to prepare two documents in English:
1. A brief explanation for the EC detailing the research aims and methodology.
2. An informed consent form (limited to one sheet, two pages) for participants. This form must be signed by all participants, either in person or online, before the research and testing can commence.
7. Cognitive Impairment Group
- Ideally, we need two groups: those with cognitive impairment and normal individuals. First find at least 30 patients with cognitive impairment for examination, either in person or online. They should be diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia with the Mini-Mental State Examination above around 20 points. Both tests will be difficult to perform in patients with more advanced or severe dementia. They will score 0 in the ALBA but the PICNIR can still show deterioration.
- Try to find appropriate patients in hospitals/outpatient departments near your location or academic facilities. It may be a problem. I hope you overcome it and you will have access to patients with cognitive impairment.
- Alternatively, you can try to examine individuals at nursing homes where the facility provides medical care or better at retirement homes where seniors live but do not require constant medical care. However, in this context, we would need more than 100 normal individuals to establish norms and compare scores of individuals from the homes with those from normal individuals. It is a bit different topic than to compare normals vs patients.
8. Normal Participant Recruitment
- It is more difficult to identify normal participants meeting specific criteria than to recruit patients. In addition, they should be of similar age, education and gender as the patients, i.e. sociodemographically matched. This is because these factors may influence results. In the end, we will compare both groups (normals vs patients). If they differ the results might be partly caused by sociodemographic differences. Therefore, pay attention to this important point. It is not easy but manageable. Thus start with patients since you cannot influence their age, education, and gender. Accordingly, adjust the recruitment of normal participants with regard to these sociodemographic factors to have both groups age-, education- and gender- matched.
Identify at least 30 older adults (50+) in your country, such as parents, grandparents, friends, and others, who are willing to complete the recruitment questionnaire, fulfill the criteria for normal participants and be examined by you in-person or online. Select only those for testing who meet the criteria for normal individuals based on the online electronic questionnaire.
9. Recruitment Questionnaire for Normal Participants
- Create a Google Form for recruitment in your native language. You can reference a similar Czech example here: Electronic form for recruitment of normal individuals in Czech to modify - Formuláře Google. You can probably copy it to your or my drive and modify it to your language and country. This questionnaire is designed to identify suitable candidates for establishing norms for the tests, i.e. so-called controls. I would appreciate it if you shared the link to your electronic form in your native language for future use or future students from your country.
10. Examinations
- Schedule examinations with interested participants.
11. Data Evaluation
- Input the results into an Excel spreadsheet and evaluate them.
12. Statistical Analysis
- Collaborate on performing statistical analysis of the data.
13. Report Writing
- Write a short report or even a full article about this research, your experiences, and the results for publication in a Czech neurological or other relevant journal.
14. Conference Participation
- Present your research at a Student Scientific Conference.
15. Educational Recording
- Consider recording an educational examination in your native language with a participant (e.g., parents or grandparents). If possible, add English subtitles and upload the video to my YouTube channel for other professionals in your country to view.