Effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation, on component of verbal working memory and spatial working memory in adults with stroke

Stroke is a kind of neurological disorder that can be attributed to a focal vascular cause. Defective working memory is one of the most commonly occurring phenomena after brain damage. Cognitive Rehabilitation is a cognitive and neuropsychological interventions program, designed to rehabilitate cognitive deficiencies. Twenty patients with stroke were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. All patients were examined twice (pre-test and post-test) by using Wechsler's working memory test, N-Back spatial working memory test. All patients in experimental group underwent computerized working memory rehabilitation, 30 to 40 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 5 weeks. Analysis of covariance indicated that cognitive rehabilitation had an effect on the verbal working memory of adults in stroke but does not affect spatial working memory. The results showed that, there is a significant improvement in verbal working memory, it may occur as a result of changes in neural organization in response to injury. As a result of the cognitive rehabilitation program used in this study reemerges subjective acts and based on brain flexibility, it improves the working memory of people with stroke.