Mini-object test: a new brief clinical assessment for aphasia-apraxia-agnosia.

Primary degenerative dementia (Alzheimer's disease) is characterized by intellectual decline with impairment of memory, judgment, and abstract thinking. Also common are personality changes and disturbances of higher cortical function such as aphasia, apraxia, and agnosia. Standardized brief cognitive tests are useful for evaluating mental status, which is often limited by short attention span, distractibility, fatigability, mental retardation, illiteracy, and/or confusion. Data from 225 institutionalized patients support the mini-object test (MOT) as a valid, reliable, cost-effective, portable screening procedure for confirming the clinical diagnosis of aphasia-apraxia-agnosia associated with senile dementia of the Alzheimer type. Further studies are needed to demonstrate the diagnostic value of the MOT in other dementing disorders.