Motor recovery after stroke depends on intact sustained attention: A 2-year follow-up study

Author(s): Ridgeway, V., Greenfield, E., Parr, A.

Journal/Book: Neuropsychology. 1997; 11: 750 First St NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Amer Psychological Assoc. 290-295.

Abstract: The functional recovery of 47 right-brain-damaged stroke patients was studied over a 2-year period. The researchers hypothesized that sustained attention capacity should predict the degree of motor and functional recovery over this period because of a proposed privileged role of sustained attention in learning-based recovery of function. As predicted, significant correlations were found between sustained attention capacity at 2 months and functional status (including the Barthel Index) at 2 years. This relationship was shown to exist independently of 2-month functional status. Furthermore, compared with a left-brain-damaged group of cerebrovascular accident (CVA) patients, the right-brain CVA group did not recover functional ability as well over the 2-year period. This increasing difference in functional status over a 2-year period was mirrored by an emerging difference in sustained attention capacity, in favor of the left-brain CVA group.

Note: Article Robertson IH, Addenbrookes Hosp, MRC, Appl Psychol Unit, Rehabil Res Grp, Box 58, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, ENGLAND

Keyword(s): SOMATOSENSORY CORTEX; NORADRENALINE; HEMIPLEGIA; BRAIN; DEPRESSION; NEGLECT; LESIONS; INJURY; DAMAGE; SYSTEM

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