Cognitive deficit is an inclusive term to describe any characteristic that acts as a barrier to the cognition process.Deficits in overall intelligence (as with intellectual disabilities).
• Specific and restricted deficits in cognitive abilities (such as in learning disorders like dyslexia),
• Neuropsychological deficits (such as in attention, working memory or executive function), It may describe drug-induced impairment in cognition and memory.

Your brain, like the rest of your body, changes as you grow older. Many people notice gradually increasing forgetfulness as they age. It may take longer to think of a word or to recall a person's name.

Cognitive psychology has become an important area of research in a number of psychiatric disorders, ranging from severe psychotic illness such as schizophrenia to relatively benign, yet significantly disabling, non-psychotic illnesses such as somatoform disorder. Research in the area of neurocognition has started unlocking various secrets of psychotic disorders, such as revealing the biological underpinnings, explaining the underlying psychopathology and issues related to course, outcome and treatment strategies.

Among the specific functions that may be assessed in determining the intactness or adequacy of cognition are orientation, the ability to learn necessary skills, solve problems, think abstractly, reason and make judgements, the ability to retain and recall events, mathematical ability and other forms of symbol manipulation, control over primitive reactions and behaviour, language use and comprehension, attention, perception and praxis.

Mild cognitive impairment is a clinical diagnosis representing a doctor's best professional judgment about the reason for a person's symptoms. If a physician has difficulty confirming a diagnosis of MCI or the cause of MCI, biomarker tests such as brain imaging and cerebrospinal fluid tests may be performed to determine if the individual has MCI due to Alzheimer's. Currently, there are no medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of MCI. Drugs approved to treat symptoms of Alzheimer's disease have not shown any lasting benefit in delaying or preventing progression of MCI to dementia.

Regards
Meria Den
Managing Editor
Stroke Research & Therapy