NEUROBEL: Breve batería neuropsicológica de evaluación del lenguaje oral en adultos-mayores. Datos normativos iniciales

NEUROBEL (Neuropsychological assessment of language in adults) is a brief battery that allows a screening of the basic processes of language comprehension and production. It consists of 8 tasks, assessing oral-language processing from the theoretical model of cognitive neuropsychology. The aim has been to carry out a pilot study of initial normative data for NEUROBEL battery in older-adults. This in mind, we studied a sample of 30 male and female healthy participants aged over 50 without cognitive impairment (MMSE ≥ 25). The NEUROBEL battery was administered to all the participants, which were split into 2 groups: “adults” (50-64) and “older-adults” (> 65). The latter group was also analyzed according to their usual residence (private home or nursing home). In the Results section, it is shown the scores and time performances of the participants in the battery, as well as main percentiles. NEUROBEL is shown as a valid and reliable battery, including high Pearson's correlations among the tasks. Univariate ANOVAs show group and schooling effects in the scores of the battery for younger and more schooled participants. Conversely, sex factor does not influence the results achieved, although it is shown as significant variable in favor of the women for time execution of the tasks. Some differences among participants over 65 years old, depending on their usual place of residence and sex are debated in the Discussion.