Commonly used Neuropsychological Tests for Spanish Speakers: Normative Data from Latin America.

Neuropsychology is a sub-specialty of the field of psychology that examines the relationship between brain function and cognitive abilities (Lezak, Howieson, Loring, Hannay, & Fischer, 2004). Neuropsychology began in 1861–1875 when concurrent advances in clinical neurology, anatomy, physiology, and psychology combined to create the field (Benton & Adams, 2000), but in Latin America it has a shorter history. The first neuropsychological laboratory was founded in 1958 in Uruguay, and interest in this sub-specialty spread through other Latin American countries (Dansilio, 2009). In the past few decades there have been important advancements in the academic training and resources available (e.g., textbooks, journals, and conferences in Spanish), and the creation of professional associations that have together facilitated a growing number of practicing neuropsychologists. However, the advancements have not been homogeneous across all Latin American countries. Despite this heterogeneity, there are a certain number of common barriers to advancing the field of neuropsychology in Latin America, including insufficient academic and clinical training opportunities, poor attitudes towards professional collaboration, and lack of access to neuropsychological tests (Arango-Lasprilla et al., 2014; Arango-Lasprilla, Rivera, Rogers, Panyavin, & Perrin, 2014; Arango-Lasprilla & Rivera, 2015). Even when neuropsychologists gain access to tests, normative data for their countries for those tests often do not exist. In a review of the literature on standardization of tests in Latin America, the major efforts to create norms for neuropsychological tests tend to be concentrated in Brazil (Beato et al., 2011; Magalhães & Hamdan, 2010), Mexico (Ostrosky-Solı́s, Ardila, & Rosselli, 1999), Argentina (Allegri et al., 1997; Butman, Allegri, Harris, & Drake, 2000), and Colombia (Rosselli, Ardila, Florez, & Castro, 1990). However, most of neuropsychological tests used in Latin America do not have norms available for the majority of Latin American countries. Thus neuropsychologists from Latin America must often resort to using norms created in other countries (e.g. Spain, US). Because there are numerous differences between the populations of developing regions like Latin America and developed countries, especially in education/literacy levels and cultural issues, using norms created with English speakers in the US or Spanish speakers in Spain can lead to inaccurate assessment and misdiagnosis. In order to create country-specific norms for some of the most commonly used neuropsychological tests in adults, a multi-center study in 20 cities in 12 countries was conducted. The goal was to provide standardized norms for healthy adults ages 18 to 90 while taking into account age, education, and sex. A sample of 5,402 Spanish-speaking adults native to Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Puerto Rico was obtained. The results from 1,425 Colombians have been published elsewhere (Arango-Lasprilla & Rivera, 2015). Therefore, this special issue will present the procedures and results used to generate normative data from 3,977 healthy individuals from 14 cities in the remaining 11 Spanish-speaking Latin American countries.