title: Cognitive performance on the mini-mental state examination and the montreal cognitive assessment across the healthy adult lifespan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We sought to compare age-related performance on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) across the adult lifespan in an asymptomatic, presumably normal, sample.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The MMSE is the most commonly used brief cognitive screening test; however, the MoCA may be better at detecting early cognitive dysfunction.
  
  
  METHODS
  We gave the MMSE and MoCA to 254 community-dwelling participants ranging in age from 20 to 89, stratified by decade, and we compared their scores using the Wilcoxon signed rank test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For the total sample, the MMSE and MoCA differed significantly in total scores as well as in visuospatial, language, and memory domains (for all of these scores, P<0.001). Mean MMSE scores declined only modestly across the decades; mean MoCA scores declined more dramatically. There were no consistent domain differences between the MMSE and MoCA during the third and fourth decades; however, significant differences in memory (P<0.05) and language (P<0.001) emerged in the fifth through ninth decades.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that the MoCA may be a better detector of age-related decrements in cognitive performance than the MMSE, as shown in this community-dwelling adult population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Shea
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gluhm
authors.forename: Jody
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: Kiet
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Loc
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Colt
authors.forename: Charles Van
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Liew
authors.forename: Jody
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Corey-Bloom
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests
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