Rehabilitation of verbal working memory after left hemisphere stroke.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

To assess a rehabilitation programme of working memory.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Single case multiple-baseline-across-behaviour design in a patient with chronic stroke suffering from a specific impairment of working memory.

METHODS

Rehabilitation included training of storage and processing components of verbal working memory. Outcome was assessed with specific working memory tests, non-specific tasks requiring working memory, non-target tasks not requiring working memory and questionnaires addressing daily-life functioning. This assessment was performed twice before the experimental therapy and once after.

RESULTS

Cognitive measures were stable before therapy. A statistically significant improvement was found for target measures and for daily-life skills. In contrast, no change was found on non-target tasks.

CONCLUSION

Improvement was not apparently related to spontaneous recovery, since performance was stable before therapy. This study suggests that specific cognitive training may improve working memory in patients with brain injury.