Cognitive rehabilitation

Cognitive disorders constitute a serious obstacle to rehabilitation. They lead to greater functional impairment, interfere with the quality of life of brain-injured survivors, and add to caregivers burden. Therefore, the treatment of cognitive disorders is of paramount importance in rehabilitation. This had led to the development of several treatment methods in the field of "cognitive rehabilitation". Clinically, cognitive rehabilitation is a process whereby brain injured people work together with health professionals to remediate of alleviate cognitive deficits arising from neurological insult (B. Wilson, 1996).

This comprehensive definition of cognitive rehabilitation characterizes the subject of investigation of this research line. Herein, the evaluation of treatment methods for cognitive deficits in the domains of executive functioning, perception, memory, mental speed and sustained mental effort is undertaken. In every domain, review studies are performed and new, cutting-edge training methods are given to groups of brain-injured patients, and their effectiveness is investigated in randomized controlled trials. If these trials require the development of novel assessment instruments, new tests, observation scales and questionnaires are also developed and evaluated.

The research line also comprises research into neuropsychiatric disturbances (in particular depression) that are frequently observed following brain lesions. These disturbances in neurological patients present unique challenges, when related to the specificity of the population studied. The evaluation of assessment as well as treatment methods for these neuropsychiatric disturbances in neurological patients is also a main objective of this research line.

A list of the cognitive rehabilitation studies follows:

• Augmented cognitive behavioural therapy in post-stroke depression and anxiety
• The treatment of post-stroke depressive complaints
• Errorless learning in goal management training
• NIRS based bci for the rehabilitation of gait
• Use of brain signals and computer technology in rehabilitation
• Effectiveness of cognitive and graded activity training on post-stroke fatigue.
• Cognitive rehabilitation of hemi-neglect
• Efficacy of Time Pressure Management (TPM) in stroke patients with mental slowness.