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

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

Neuropsychological test of Luria-Christensen: characteristics

The Neuropsychological Test of Luria-Christensen is a neuropsychological battery built by Alexander Romanovich Luria (1974) and revised by Anne L. Christensen (1978). It comes from the European school of neuropsychology, which focused on a qualitative rather than quantitative evaluation, as no normative data were available.

This test is widely used in nurology and nuropsychology for the diagnosis of different brain functions. The battery is based on the theory of the Functional Systems of Luria .

Functions you evaluate

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

  • Motor functions : hands, oral praxias, ataxias, hyperkinesias and synkinesias, etc.
  • Acoustic-motor organization : includes differentiating whether 2 tones are the same, sound reproduction, etc.
  • Superior skin and kinaesthetic functions : skin, muscle, joint and sternum sensations, etc.
  • Higher visual functions : perception of objects, colours, 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 skill : understanding of numerical concepts and arithmetic operations.
  • Mnestic processes : learning, retention, retrieval and logical memory
  • Intellectual processes : ability to analyse situations, develop action strategies…

Technical sheet for this test

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

The age of application is from 7 years old. It is of individual application and the time of application 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 4-6.
  • The Luria-DNI: for children between 7 and 12 years old.
  • Luria-DNA: from age 7

Let’s get to know them in detail.

1. Luria-Initial Battery

Designed by Dr. Ramos and Dr. Manga, this battery is the result of many years of research and experience with the Luria instruments, and tries to respond to the needs of evaluation of the child period .

It covers a hitherto uncovered age range of 4 to 6 years. It is a continuity to 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 manual laterality of the subject.

2. Luria-DNI battery

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

3. Luria-DNA battery

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

The battery allows to obtain a comprehensive neuropsychological profile of a person in five domains: visuospatial, oral language, memory, intellectual and attention control , and evaluates from age 7. Its aim is to analyse neuropsychologically the higher processes in adults.

Spanish adaptation: Manga y Ramos test

From Luria-Christensen’s proposal, Manga and Ramos make the Spanish adaptation, which evaluates 4 areas: visuospatial, language, memory and intellectual processes.

Each of these areas includes different subtests :

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

In addition, they add a further subtest not included in any particular area: attention control . Finally, a total score is obtained by adding up all the subtest scores, from which a global neuropsychological profile of the subject is obtained.

Bibliographic references:

  • Buela-Casal, G.; Sierra, J.C. (1997). Manual de evaluación psicológica. Siglo XXI. Madrid.
  • Basuela, E. (2007). Analysis of the factorial structure of the Luria-DNA battery in university students. Journal of Psychodidactics, 12(1), 143-152.
  • Basuela, E. (2008). Review: Child neuropsychological assessment batteries. PEDIATRIC BOWL, 48(203), 8-12.