Description
Attention and its many facets is a dimension of inquiry within any neuropsychological assessment, even when conducted in a relatively cursory fashion such as when a “bed-side” examination is performed. Unlike other neuropsychological functions, there is neither a single robust measure that can fully assess this dimension nor is there a unitary brain region that governs the complex network of skills, which fall under the rubric of attention. One facet of attention is referred to as mental tracking, or the ability to sustain focus while performing a cognitive operation over repeated trials. The serial subtraction task is one measure that assesses mental tracking capacity.
Current Knowledge
The general strategy employed with serial subtractions involves requesting the examinee to “subtract 7 from 100” (Serial 7s) and, when they have completed this task, to “now subtract seven from ninety-three and to keep going until you can’t go any further.” The...
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References and Readings
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Sandberg, M.A. (2017). Serial Subtractions. In: Kreutzer, J., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_1328-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_1328-2
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