Cognitive Changes with Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy

Subjects: Individuals with a history of a non-progressive acquired brain injury, age of 18 or older. Able to come in the UIC for an evaluation and then weekly treatment for 3-4 months.

Introduction: Cognitive rehabilitation therapy (CRT) improves and extends the functional recovery following acquired brain injury (ABI). In this project we use neuropsychological tests is to identify cognitive deficits before rehabilitation. After the initial three to four hour initial evaluation, individuals can consider enrollment in a study involving fMRI. In this related research project, three carefully selected fMRI tasks are administered to investigate the brain changes that result from ABI. After the initial evaluation consenting subjects will be asked to attend weekly CRT sessions with a psychologist. The psychologist will use an individually designed rehabilitation program to enhance restoration of cogntitive weaknesses and to teach compensation strategies to assist everyday cognitive problems. At the end of the CRT, the neuropsychological evaluation will be repeated and, if appropriate, the fMRI tasks will be repeated.

Contact Person:
Dr. Linda Laatsch, Principal Investigator,
Director of Rehabilitation
Psychology, UIC
(312) 996-7214
llaatsch@uic.edu