Computer-assisted training of executive functions in adult patients with non-progressive acquired brain damage - a pilot study on efficacy of a new therapeutic application.

Executive dysfunction is most often caused by post-traumatic or post-stroke damage to the prefrontal regions of the brain. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of two computer-assisted therapy programs for executive dysfunctions in patients with acquired brain injury. Patients were trained using either a newly developed application ExeSystem (designed to help improve the ability to manage and control one's own behavior by performing tasks imitating natural, everyday situations) or a combination of two commercial applications RehaCom and CogniPlus.

Clinical Efficacy and Safety Profile of Anterior Thalamic Stimulation for Intractable Epilepsy.

Introduction:  Deep brain stimulation of the anterior nucleus of the thalamus (ANT DBS) is a neuromodulation therapy for patients with refractory partial seizures. The ANT is the structure of a limbic system with abundant neuronal connections to temporal and frontal brain regions that participate in seizure propagation circuitry.

State Of The Art:  We have performed a literature search regarding the clinical efficacy of ANT DBS.

Neuronavigated 1 Hz rTMS of the left angular gyrus combined with visuospatial therapy in post-stroke neglect.

Background: Visuospatial neglect (VSN) may be caused by an inter-hemispheric imbalance of neural activity after brain injury. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) allows rebalancing restoration to a certain degree, relieving neglect symptoms.

Objective: This study investigates the therapeutic effect of 1 Hz rTMS applied over the left angular gyrus combined with visual scanning training in patients with left VSN in the subacute stroke phase.

Comprehensive cognitive training improves attention and memory in patients with severe or moderate traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) leads to cognitive disorders, the most frequently affected functions being attention and memory. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of a cognitive rehabilitation program, consisting of individual and group interventions, on attention and memory in patients with TBI. Fifteen patients-in the postacute phase of recovery from moderate-to-severe TBI and subsequent cognitive disorders-were enrolled on a three-week waiting list and then underwent a three-week cognitive rehabilitation program.

Effects of group versus individual therapy for patients with memory disorder after an acquired brain injury: A randomized, controlled study.

Introduction: This randomized, controlled, single-blind study compared the efficacy of group versus individual memory rehabilitation therapy for patients with acquired brain injury (ABI). Subjects (N = 65) were assigned to individual (IT), group (GT), or no (NT) therapy during the three-week rehabilitation program. A neuropsychological assessment was conducted before treatment, immediately after completing treatment, and 4 months after completing treatment.

Diverse attention deficits in patients with neurologically symptomatic and asymptomatic Wilson's disease.

Objective: Cognitive deficits in patients with Wilson's disease (WD) have been reported in several studies, but there was no detailed analysis of the various components of attention, one of the most significant factors of the executive system. Our study determined the pattern of deficits in attention subsystems in WD patients, including selective attention, divided attention, attention switching, and sustained attention.

Method: We examined 67 WD patients using the Test of Everyday Attention (TEA)-33 participants with neurological symptoms and 34 who were neurologically asymptomatic, but most with mild hepatic dysfunctions.

Visual disorders, the prosopometamorphopsia and prosopagnosia type in the early days after the onset of brain hemorrhagic stroke--a case report.

Presented case report illustrates symptoms of prosopometamorphopsia (PM) and prosopagnosia, observed in the early days after the onset of a hemorrhagic stroke resulting from a complication of endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms and the use of anticoagulation therapy. PM is a visual disorder in which faces are perceived as distorted. The female patient described in the present study reported that faces she looked at seemed younger or older than in reality or as if they were dirty, swollen, or with a grimace.

[The value of self-report methods in neuropsychological diagnostics of patients after brain injury].

Self-report methods are commonly applied in medicine and psychology. However, their diagnostic value in assessment of patients with acquired brain damage can be limited due to a number of various difficulties encountered by these patients, including cognitive disorders, fatigue, similarity of psychopathological and somatic symptoms, psychological reaction to the disease and limited or lack of insight (anosognosia). In our article we highlight the most important limitations of application of popular frequently used questionnaires in evaluation of brain-injured patients.

Effect of low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on naming abilities in early-stroke aphasic patients: a prospective, randomized, double-blind sham-controlled study.

Background And Purpose: Functional brain imaging studies with aphasia patients have shown increased cortical activation in the right hemisphere language homologues, which hypothetically may represent a maladaptive strategy that interferes with aphasia recovery. The aim of this study was to investigate whether low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the Broca's homologues in combination with speech/language therapy improves naming in early-stroke aphasia patients.

Methods: 26 right-handed aphasic patients in the early stage (up to 12 weeks) of a first-ever left hemisphere ischemic stroke were randomized to receive speech and language therapy combined with real or sham rTMS.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with physiotherapy in rehabilitation of poststroke hemiparesis: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Background: Low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the contralesional primary motor cortex (M1) may improve recovery in patients with hemiparetic stroke.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of applying 1 Hz rTMS to the contralesional M1 in addition to physiotherapy during early rehabilitation for stroke patients with hand hemiparesis in a randomized, sham-controlled, double-blind study.

Methods: Forty patients with moderate upper extremity hemiparesis were randomized to receive 3 weeks of motor training (45 minutes daily) preceded by 30 minutes of 1 Hz rTMS applied to the contralesional M1 or 30 minutes of sham rTMS.