Cognition is messy and complicated. There is a lot going on in your brain at all times; a ton of information is being received and processed to inform your real time behaviors, plus your brain is regulating physiological functions like breathing.

While it is true that some specific functions can be localized to particular areas of the brain, most cognitive functions are the result of several cortical and subcortical regions communicating with one another. For example, language production is commonly attributed to Broca's area, but there are still other brain regions providing input to Broca's area to determine how cells in the area will fire and communicate with others to produce speech. 

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In addition to all of that, your brain is the seat of the "mind" - all of our self-awareness, complex thoughts, feelings, emotions, and mood - the things we commonly consider defining characteristics of what makes us human. Your brain is pretty busy. All the time. And honestly, that's what makes it so much fun to study. But it also means that it can be difficult to pinpoint one single cause of a cognitive issue, like difficulty with memory. 

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You may be thinking, "Well, isn't that the whole point of this neuropsychological evaluation?" Yes, it is. The tests used during neuropsychological testing have been developed through extensive peer-reviewed research to examine the real time functioning of different thinking areas, and even different aspects of those thinking areas. For example, your evaluation may include multiple memory tests or multiple attention tests because memory and attention come in several different flavors, so to speak. 

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That being said, it is important to keep in mind that multiple factors can contribute to your cognitive concerns. Going back to our example, difficulty with memory can be the result of a number of individual things, or even a combination of those things. Furthermore, difficulty remembering things is not always attributable to dementia. Pseudodementia is when non-neurodegenerative conditions create difficulties that look like dementia. In fact, depression is often the cause of pseudodementia, resulting in problems with memory and even executive functions. This means that trying to treat pseudodementia as actual dementia (like using a medication for treatment of Alzheimer's disease) isn't likely to be very effective since the underly cause is completely different; the most benefit to be gained would be from treating the depression. 

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This is why it is so important to examine several different thinking areas in addition to emotional and personality functioning during a neuropsychological evaluation; a lot of different things could be contributing to the struggles you are having, and we want to be thorough so we can provide the most accurate diagnosis and information to help guide your treatment and care. ​​