Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Home-based cognitive training in pediatric patients with acquired brain injury: preliminary results on efficacy of a randomized clinical trial

2020; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 10; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/s41598-020-57952-5

2045-2322

Claudia Corti, Cosimo Urgesi, Geraldina Poggi, Sandra Strazzer, Renato Borgatti, Alessandra Bardoni,

Educational and Psychological Assessments

Abstract Cognitive rehabilitation may compensate for cognitive deficits of children with acquired brain injury (ABI), capitalizing on the use-dependent plasticity of a developing brain. Remote computerized cognitive training (CCT) may be delivered to patients in ecological settings, ensuring rehabilitation continuity. This work evaluated cognitive and psychological adjustment outcomes of an 8-week multi-domain, home-based CCT (Lumosity Cognitive Training) in a sample of patients with ABI aged 11–16 years. Two groups of patients were engaged in five CCT sessions per week for eight weeks (40 sessions). According to a stepped-wedge research design, one group (Training-first Group) started the CCT immediately, whereas the other group (Waiting-first Group) started the CCT after a comparable time of waiting list. Changes after the training and after the waiting period were compared in the two groups. Both groups improved in visual-spatial working memory more after the training than after the waiting-list period. The Training-first group improved also in arithmetic calculation speed. Findings indicate that a multi-domain CCT can produce benefits in visual-spatial working memory, probably because, in accordance with previous research, computer games heavily tax visuo-spatial abilities. This suggests that the prolonged stimulation of the same cognitive ability may generate the greatest benefits in children with ABI.