How to Do a Mental Status Exam VIDEO The patient is asked to do the following: Follow a complex command that involves 3 body parts and discriminates between right and left (eg, "Put your right thumb in your left ear, and stick out your tongue") Name simple objects and parts of those objects (eg, glasses and lens, belt and belt buckle) Name body parts and read, write, and repeat simple phrases (if deficits are noted, other tests of aphasia are needed) Spatial perception can be assessed by asking the patient to imitate simple and complex finger constructions and to draw a clock, cube, house, or interlocking pentagons; the effort expended is often as informative as the final product.