Luria-Christensen neuropsychological test: what it is and what it evaluates

Psychological evaluation includes a wide variety of techniques aimed at evaluating different personality traits, psychological and neurological functions, intelligence, etc. Here we will know the Luria-Christensen neuropsychological test, a neuropsychological battery of great repercussion.

Neuropsychological functions include areas of the person such as motor, visual, spatial, language, etc. We are going to know in detail what areas this test evaluates and what its characteristics are.

• Related article: "Neuropsychology: what is it and what is its object of study?"

Luria-Christensen neuropsychological test: characteristics

The Luria-Christensen Neuropsychological Test is a neuropsychological battery built by Alexander Romanovich Luria (1974) and reviewed by Anne L. Christensen (1978). It comes from the European neuropsychological school, which focused on a more qualitative than quantitative evaluation, since it did not have normative data.

This test is widely used in nurology and neuropsychology for the diagnosis of different brain functions. Battery

is based on the theory of Functional Systems of Luria.

Functions it evaluates

There are many functions that the test evaluates. Specifically, the following:

• motor functions: hands, oral praxis, ataxias, hyperkinesis and synkinesis, etc.
• Acoustic-motor organization: includes differentiating if 2 tones are the same, the reproduction of sounds, etc.
• Higher cutaneous and kinesthetic functions: skin, muscle, joint and stereognosis sensations, etc.
• Superior visual functions: perception of objects, colors, visual acuity, etc.
• receptive language: phonemic hearing, word comprehension, simple/complex sentences…
• expressive language: articulation of sounds, repetitive language, narrative…
• Reading writing: phonetic analysis, word synthesis…
• arithmetic dexterity: understanding of number concepts and arithmetic operations.
• memory processes: learning, retention, retrieval and logical memory.
• intellectual processes: ability to analyze situations, develop action strategies…

Technical sheet of this test

At a technical level, the components (material) of the Luria-Christensen neuropsychological test they include the manual, a box with cards, the exam itself, a booklet for the child and a booklet for the examiner.

The age of application is from 7 years. It is of individual application and the application time is variable.

Versions of the Luria-Christensen Test

There are different versions of the Luria-Christensen Neuropsychological Test:

• The Luria-initial, for pre-school ages between 4 and 6 years.
• The Luria-DNI: intended for children between 7 and 12 years of age.
• The Luria-DNA: from 7 years

Let's get to know them in detail.

1. Luria-Initial Battery

Designed by doctors Ramos and Manga, this drum kit arose from many years of research and experience with Luria's instruments, and tries to respond to the evaluation needs of the infant period.

It covers an age range not covered until now, from 4 to 6 years. It is a continuation of the Luria-DNI battery, and the latter in turn represents a continuation of the Luria-DNA battery. All of them are sensitive to human development. In addition, the test allows an exploration of the subject's manual laterality.

2. Battery Luria-DNI

Also developed by professors Manga and Ramos in 1991, it follows on from the previous one. It was elaborated from the methods of Luria to analyze at a neuropsychological level the higher processes. It has different scales: level of 7 years old, level of 8 years, level of 9 years and level of 10 years and up.

3. Luria-DNA Battery

It is a neuropsychological battery designed, in the same way, by the professors Manga and Ramos (1999), from the material elaborated by Christensen.

The battery allows obtaining a comprehensive neuropsychological profile of a person in five domains: visuospatial, oral language, memory, intellectual and attentional control, and evaluates from 7 years. Its objective is to neuropsychologically analyze the higher processes in adults.

Spanish adaptation: Manga and Ramos test

Based on Luria-Christensen's proposal, Manga and Ramos make the Spanish adaptation, which evaluates 4 areas: visual-spatial, language, memory and intellectual processes.

Each of these areas includes different subtests:

• Visuospatial area: includes the visual perception and spatial orientation subtests.
• Oral language area: includes the receptive speech and expressive speech subtests.
• Memory area: includes immediate memory and logical memory subtests.
• Intellectual area: includes subtests on thematic drawings and texts, and on conceptual activity.

In addition, they add one more subtest not included in any specific area: attentional control. Finally, a total score is obtained by adding all the scores of the subtests, from which a global neuropsychological profile of the subject is obtained.

bibliographic references:

• Buela-Casal, G.; Sierra, J.C. (1997). Psychological evaluation manual. Ed. XXI century. Madrid.
• Basuela, E. (2007). Analysis of the factorial structure of the Luria-DNA battery in university students. Psychodidactic Magazine, 12(1), 143-152.
• Basuela, E. (2008). Review: Child neuropsychological assessment batteries. BOL PEDIATRIC, 48(203), 8-12.