Communicating using the eyes without remembering it: cognitive rehabilitation in a severely brain-injured patient with amnesia, tetraplegia and anarthria.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2340/16501977-0344Keywords:
traumatic brain injury, amnesia, locked-in syndrome, eye-tracker, cognitive rehabilitation.Abstract
We describe here a case of cognitive rehabilitation in a young patient with closed head injury, who had dense anterograde amnesia and such disabling neurological defects (tetraplegia and anarthria) that the condition evoked some features of an incomplete locked-in syndrome. After a prolonged period of no communicative possibility, the patient underwent a specific training, based on principles of errorless learning, with the aim of using a computerized eye-tracker system. Although, due to memory disturbances, the patient always denied ever having used the eye-tracker system, learned to use the computerized device and improved interaction with the environment. This favourable outcome may serve as a stimulus for devising new training approaches in patients with complex patterns of cognitive impairments, even when associated with severe motor impairments.Downloads
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