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.