Motor Recovery After Stroke Depends on Intact Sustained Attention: A 2-Year Follow-Up Study

The functional recovery of 47 right-brain-damaged stroke patients was studied over a 2-year period. The researchers hypothesized that sustained attention capacity should predict the degree of motor and functional recovery over this period because of a proposed privileged role of sustained attention...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuropsychology 1997-04, Vol.11 (2), p.290-295
Main Authors: Robertson, Ian H, Ridgeway, Valerie, Greenfield, Eve, Parr, Alice
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Attention - physiology
Brain Damage
Cerebrovascular Accidents
Cerebrovascular Disorders - physiopathology
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Followup Studies
Human
Humans
Left Hemisphere
Male
Middle Aged
Motor Activity - physiology
Motor Processes
Recovery (Disorders)
Right Hemisphere
Sustained Attention
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Summary:The functional recovery of 47 right-brain-damaged stroke patients was studied over a 2-year period. The researchers hypothesized that sustained attention capacity should predict the degree of motor and functional recovery over this period because of a proposed privileged role of sustained attention in learning-based recovery of function. As predicted, significant correlations were found between sustained attention capacity at 2 months and functional status (including the Barthel Index) at 2 years. This relationship was shown to exist independently of 2-month functional status. Furthermore, compared with a left-brain-damaged group of cerebrovascular accident (CVA) patients, the right-brain CVA group did not recover functional ability as well over the 2-year period. This increasing difference in functional status over a 2-year period was mirrored by an emerging difference in sustained attention capacity, in favor of the left-brain CVA group.
ISSN:0894-4105
1931-1559
DOI:10.1037/0894-4105.11.2.290