MOTOR RECOVERY AFTER STROKE DEPENDS ON INTACT SUSTAINED ATTENTION - A2-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 sustai ned attention capacity should predict the degree of motor and function al recovery over this period because of a proposed privileged role of sustained attention in learning-based recovery of function. As predict ed, significant correlations were found between sustained attention ca pacity at 2 months and functional status (including the Barthel Index) at 2 years. This relationship was shown to exist independently of 2-m onth functional status. Furthermore, compared with a left-brain-damage d group of cerebrovascular accident (CVA) patients, the right-brain CV A group did not recover functional ability as well over the 2-year per iod. This increasing difference in functional status over a 2-year per iod was mirrored by an emerging difference in sustained attention capa city, in favor of the left-brain CVA group.