Effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on selective and divided attention and executive function in adults with stroke

Introduction: Stroke is a sudden onset of a neurological disorder that can be attributed to a focal vascular cause. Working memory defects are one of the most commonly occurring phenomena after brain damage. Working memory is the core of executive functions. Cognitive rehabilitation is a cognitive and neuropsychological intervention program designed to rehabilitate cognitive defects. Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cognitive rehabilitation on the divided attention, selective attention and executive function of adults with stroke. Method: 20 patients with stroke in this study were equally divided into experimental and control groups. All patients were examined by Wechsler's working memory test, divided and selective attention test, and Wisconsin Card sorting test. The experimental group trained 5 weeks and 5 days for 30-40 minutes with a computerized rehabilitation program. Results: Analysis of univariate covariance shows that cognitive rehabilitation has effect on selective attention, but does not affect the divided attention and executive function. The calculated F in the level of significance (P <0.05) was significant (22.23) and (0.6 and 97. 3) was not significant. Improvement in selective attention may occur as a result of changes in neural organization in response to injury. Conclusion: It seems that the lack of improvement in divided attention and the executive function is due to the lack of harmony and parallel exercise in different regions of the brain because of infective tissue.