Aging and the rehabilitation of homonymous hemianopia: The efficacy of compensatory eye-movement training techniques and a five-year follow up.

The specificity and effectiveness of eye-movement training to remedy impaired visual exploration and reading with particular consideration of age and co-morbidity was tested in a group of 97 patients with unilateral homonymous hemianopia using a single subject /n-of-1 design. Two groups received either scanning training followed by reading training, or . The third group acted as a control group and received non-specific detailed advice, followed by training of scanning and reading.

Plasticity versus chronicity: Stable performance on category fluency 40 years post-onset.

What is the long-term trajectory of semantic memory deficits in patients who have suffered structural brain damage? Memory is, per definition, a changing faculty. The traditional view is that after an initial recovery period, the mature human brain has little capacity to repair or reorganize. More recently, it has been suggested that the central nervous system may be more plastic with the ability to change in neural structure, connectivity, and function.

Action blindsight and antipointing in a hemianopic patient.

Blindsight refers to the observation of residual visual abilities in the hemianopic field of patients without a functional V1. Given the within- and between-subject variability in the preserved abilities and the phenomenal experience of blindsight patients, the fine-grained description of the phenomenon is still debated. Here we tested a patient with established "perceptual" and "attentional" blindsight (c.

Translucence perception is not dependent on cortical areas critical for processing colour or texture.

Translucence is an important property of natural materials, and human observers are adept at perceiving changes in translucence. Perceptions of different material properties appear to arise from different cortical regions, and it is therefore plausible that the perception of translucence is dependent on specialised regions, separate from those important for colour and texture processing. To test for anatomical independence between areas necessary for colour, texture and translucence perception we assessed translucency perception in a cortically colour blind observer, who performs at chance on tasks of colour and texture discrimination.

Results of the first interim analysis of the RAPPER II trial in patients with spinal cord injury: ambulation and functional exercise programs in the REX powered walking aid.

Background: The RAPPER II study investigates the feasibility, safety and acceptability of using the REX self-stabilising robotic exoskeleton in people with spinal cord injury (SCI) who are obligatory wheelchair users. Feasibility is assessed by the completion of transfer into the REX device, competency in achieving autonomous control and completion of upper body exercise in an upright position in the REX device. Safety is measured by the occurrence of serious adverse events.