No abstract

Patients with a dysexecutive syndrome often have severe disabilities in daily life activities. The aims of this study were to use a naturalistic experimental task to assess patients' disabilities, and to study the nature of the cognitive disorders underlying them. Execution of a cooking task involving multi-tasking (Chevignard et al., 2000) was studied in 45 patients with a dysexecutive syndrome following acquired brain injury. Patients made significantly more errors and were slower than controls; more than half of the patients did not achieve the goal and demonstrated dangerous behaviours. Those results were significantly correlated to the results of the Six Elements Task and to a behavioural questionnaire. They were also correlated to brain injury severity and to patients' cooking habits. This naturalistic assessment is clinically relevant to better assess patients' dysexecutive impairments in complex activities of daily living. Correlations of the results in the cooking task with the neuropsychological assessment highlighted the role of the dysexecutive syndrome in patients' disabilities, indicating control alterations rather than planning disorders, difficulty in dealing with the environment, and inhibiting inappropriate actions. The role of attention and prospective memory was also underlined, whereas other cognitive functions did not influence task performance.

The main goal of this study was to evaluate a communication assistance device (CAD) for individuals with deafblindness, based on a braille display notetaker connected via Bluetooth to an iPhone. This study examined the use of this device by a 61-year-old woman living with Usher syndrome with sighted and hearing interlocutors during three restaurant outings.The study had three specific objectives: 1) To evaluate the participant's and her interlocutors' perceptions of their productivity in the communication interaction in real-life situations, without and with the CAD; 2) To evaluate the participant's emotional experience after using the CAD; and 3) To describe how the communication interactions between the participant and her interlocutors work, without and with the CAD. The relevance, utility and interest of such a communication support technology became clearly apparent, along with the enthusiasm it aroused in her interlocutors. Despite the empowerment it provided, the huge differences in some aspects of interactions made without and with the CAD suggest that the constraints introduced by the use of a CAD modify the nature of communication. Four recommendations are made. Any future development of the technology intended for users with minimal experience working with computers and electronic devices should be encouraged.