Naomi Chaytor & Laura Germine, PhD

Despite clear scientific and public health relevance, methods for comprehensive digital neuropsychological assessment outside the traditional lab or clinical setting are limited. This lack of assessment flexibility became abundantly clear during the covid19 pandemic, when clinicians were unable to conduct face-to-face testing. Reliance on face-to-face assessment methods also limits our ability to fully understand how cognitive performance varies across time and context. This is particularly important, as data increasingly indicate that cognitive variation is an important early marker of brain dysfunction. This workshop will provide an overview of research and clinical applications of remote, self-administered mobile cognitive assessment in real-world settings. The presenters will provide examples from their recent experience 1) developing and deploying a remote digital neuropsychological assessment platform to clinicians during the covid19 pandemic, and 2) using mobile cognitive assessment in research focused on understanding the real-world effects of transient physiological and psychological states on cognitive variation. In the first part of the workshop, the development and validation of neuroscience-based self-administered mobile cognitive tests will be described, including both challenges and opportunities. Next, survey data collected from approximately 1000 clinicians (as of 4/2020) using the TestMyBrain Digital Neuropsychology Toolkit during the covid19 pandemic will be presented. Lastly, an overview of study design considerations involved in ecological momentary assessment of cognition, symptom reporting and passive sensor data will be presented from an ongoing project investigating the cognitive effects of short-term fluctuations in blood glucose and psychological state variables (fatigue, stress, affect) in adults with type 1 diabetes.