A REHABILITATION PROGRAM FOR MILD MEMORY IMPAIRMENTS

Eight subjects, 60-75 years of age, with at least 5 years of education and mild memory impairments were recruited for a rehabilitation progr am. Other 8 subjects, not exposed to the rehabilitative training and w ith the same neuro-psychological profile, represented a control group. In the first day of this program an evaluation of cognitive/behaviora l functions was performed. Our program consisted of a neuropsychologic al rehabilitative intervention along 12 weeks, with a 5-day-period of domiciliary training with a set of home exercises and a 1-day training in our Center with rehabilitative exercises administered with the aid of a personal computer, each week. Rehabilitative training administer ed in our Center was aimed at stimulating visuo-verbal, verbal and spa tial memory and the utilization of ''memory strategies'' After 4, 8 an d 12 weeks of therapeutic program, other evaluations of the cognitive functions with the same battery tests were performed to evaluate possi ble improvements: the results indicated an improvement of memory test scores that demonstrated the positive effect of neuropsychological tra ining on memory performances. There was no improvement in the control group.