Improvement in Neurocognitive Function: Disassociating Habituation from Treatment Effects

Neurocognitive function assessment (NFA) is commonly used to measure neurological function. It consists of a battery of psychometric tests designed to challenge memory, mental agility and co-ordination and is traditionally used to assess the effect of a vascular surgical intervention (day before and day after surgery) (Newman et al., 2011; Herman et al., 2003) such as carotid endarterectomy (CEA). However, changes typically recorded post CEA, may be misinterpreted as an improvement when they could actually be the result of a learning effect, possibly even coupled with temporary vascular cognitive impairment. Therefore the aim of the present study was twofound; i) to identify the magnitude of improvement in performance between days 1 and 2 ii) to determine whether 4 repeated tests are sufficient to achieve habituation.