Effectiveness of attention rehabilitation after an acquired brain injury: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

The efficacy of attention rehabilitation after an acquired brain injury was examined metaanalytically. Thirty studies with a total of 359 participants met the authors' selection criteria. Studies were categorized according to whether training efficacy was evaluated by comparing pre-and posttraining scores only or included a control condition as well. Performance improved significantly (using the d + statistic) after training in pre-post only studies but not in pre-post with control studies. Further analyses showed that specific-skills training significantly improved performance of tasks requiring attention but that the cognitive-retraining methods included in the meta-analysis did not significantly affect outcomes. These findings demonstrate that acquired deficits of attention are treatable using specific-skills training. Implications of these results for rehabilitation theory and future research are discussed.

Effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation following acquired brain injury: A meta-analytic re-examination of Cicerone et al.'s (2000, 2005) systematic reviews.

“…Cognitive rehabilitation typically involves one of these two basic strategies (Park & Ingles, 2001). The first approach attempts to retrain directly those cognitive processes that have been impaired by injury based on the notion that damaged neural circuits can be retrained if they have been partially or substantially spared after injury (Robertson & Murre, 1999).…”

Computerized working memory training after stroke–A pilot study

“…Deficits in working memory (WM) and executive attention are common problems after acquired brain injury [1][2][3][4]. WM is the ability to hold and manipulate information during a short delay, and to be able to make a response based on that internal representation.…”

Reducing Attention Deficits After Stroke Using Attention Process Training

“…25 APT is a theoretically based, hierarchical, multilevel treatment, including sustained, selective, alternating, and divided attention 25 typically administered by neuropsychologists, occupational therapists, speech language therapists, and other rehabilitation specialists, as is appropriate within their scope of practice. APT has been examined in small, nonrandomized evaluations in TBI samples [25][26][27][28][29]34 and is the basis of rehabilitation packages for mild deficits (APT-II) 30 and for children treated with radiation after cancer. [31][32][33] In a meta-analysis of TBI studies (total nϭ359) Park and Ingles 34 found attention improved significantly after specific skills training in prepost studies.…”