The Effectiveness of Computer-Based Cognitive Rehabilitation Program on Cognitive Flexibility and Response Inhibition of Children with Epilepsy

There are many important cognitive issues in patients suffering from epilepsy, including executive functions disorder such as cognitive flexibility and response inhibition. The purpose of this research is to study the effectiveness of the computer-based cognitive rehabilitation program on cognitive flexibility and response inhibition in children with epilepsy.

This was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design with the control group. The statistical society of this research includes all children with epilepsy referred to the Neurology Clinic of Mofid Hospital in Tehran in 2021, in which 30 children were selected by convenient sampling method and allocated to the experimental and control groups randomly (15 in each group). The experimental group was received 12 sessions the computer-based cognitive rehabilitation program and the control group didn’t receive any intervention. The data-gathering methods were the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (1948) and the Stroop Test (1935). The results were analyzed by SPSS20 and multivariable covariance test.

The results showed that the computer-based cognitive rehabilitation program improves cognitive flexibility (p<0.001) and response inhibition (p<0.001) of children with epilepsy.

Computer-based cognitive rehabilitation program is an effective method for executive functions, which improves cognitive flexibility and response inhibition in children with epilepsy. Consequently, it can be used as a replacement or complement method for common interferences in such children.