MONTREAL COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT MOCA instructions

A population-based study in community-dwelling elders living in rural Ecuador. Global cortical atrophy (GCA) associates with worse performance in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). 2013 61:2181–5.ĭel Brutto OH, Mera RM, Zambrano M, Soriano F, Lama J. Criterion and convergent validity of the Montreal cognitive assessment with screening and standardized neuropsychological testing. Lam B, Middleton LE, Masellis M, Stuss DT, Harry RD, Kiss A, et al. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, MoCA: a brief screening tool for mild cognitive impairment. Nasreddine ZS, Phillips NA, Bédirian V, Charbonneau S, Whitehead V, Collin I, et al. The MoCA is freely accessible for clinical and educational purposes ( and is available in 56 languages and dialects. MoCA Memory Index Score is a newly devised score that can help clinicians better predict which patients with MCI are most likely to convert to dementia. A new version of the MoCA called MoCA-Basic (MoCA-B) was developed to fulfill the limitation of the MoCA among the low educated and illiterate population. MoCA was developed in a memory clinic setting and normed in a highly educated population. Executive functions, higher-level language abilities, and complex visuospatial processing can also be mildly impaired in MCI participants of various etiologies and are assessed by the MoCA with more numerous and demanding tasks than the MMSE.

MoCA’s memory testing involves more words, fewer learning trials, and a longer delay before recall than the MMSE. There are several features in MoCA’s design that likely explain its superior sensitivity for detecting MCI.

MoCA is also sensitive to detect cognitive impairment in cerebrovascular disease and Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, brain tumors, systemic lupus erythematosus, substance use disorders, idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, obstructive sleep apnea, risk of falling, rehabilitation outcome, epilepsy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and human immunodeficiency virus infection. MoCA’s sensitivity and specificity to detect subjects with MCI due to Alzheimer’s disease and distinguish them from healthy controls are excellent. Its validity has been established to detect mild cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other pathologies in cognitively impaired subjects who scored in the normal range on the MMSE. It is a simple 10 min paper and pencil test that assesses multiple cognitive domains including memory, language, executive functions, visuospatial skills, calculation, abstraction, attention, concentration, and orientation. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a cognitive screening instrument developed to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

MONTREAL COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT MOCA instructions