A Computerized Tool for Neurocognitive Assessment of Executive Functions in Adults and Elderlies: Pilot Testing of the Executive Function Tool-Task (EF/t-t)

Executive functions (EFs) play a crucial role in higher cognition, influencing life skills and effective global functioning or dysfunctional developmental trajectories. Despite their significance, EFs assessment primarily relies on tests designed for detecting clinically-significant deficits, limiting their applicability to physiological aging or for profiling supposedly healthy populations. This study introduces the Executive Function Tool-Task (EF/t-t), a screening tool potentially spanning emerging adulthood to elderly age. In a pilot study involving 68 healthy volunteers, we firstly explored its informativity and potential. The EF/t-t includes subtests on verbal learning, memory, cognitive flexibility, attention, and inhibitory control. Partial correlation analyses, accounting for age and education, revealed moderate-to-strong coefficients between subtests, indicating good internal consistency. Also, cluster analysis allowed us to parse out three latent performance profiles. Current findings hint at the potential of the EF/t-t for complementing cognitive screening in presumably preserved adults and elderly people, offering consistent neurocognitive profiling of EFs.