Research tests shows stroke patients’ memories do improve

Canterbury research tests shows stroke patients’ memories do improve

January 25, 2015

University of Canterbury lab study tests show people’s memory can improve after a stroke.

Professor Tanja Mitrovic says the computer science and software engineering lab study tests clearly pointed to significant improvements in stroke patients’ prospective memory functioning. Her research team plans to conduct a larger clinical study and also explore the effect of similar treatment on brain-injury patients.

With support from a Marsden funded grant, Professor Mitrovic’s project is breaking new ground in helping patient rehabilitate faster after a stroke.

“We have developed a treatment method which improves prospective memory in stroke patients. These tests using a virtual reality environment for stroke patients to practise their cognitive skills clearly work.

“Prospective memory, or remembering to perform actions in the future, is of crucial importance for everyday life. This kind of memory is often impaired in stroke survivors and can interfere with independent living, as it can result in forgetting to take medication, or remember something they had to do.

“It is a complex cognitive ability, which requires coordination of multiple cognitive abilities: spatial navigation, retrospective memory, attention and executive functioning.

“We have developed a computer-based treatment based on visual imagery which teaches participants how to remember time and event-based prospective memory tasks. After the treatment, participants practiced their skills using videos first and later in a 3D virtual reality environment.

“We conducted a study which ended in October last year with 15 stroke survivors. Each participant had 10 individual sessions spread over 10 weeks. The analysis shows that the memory skills of the stroke patients we tested increased significantly.

“The benefit to New Zealand to our research would be in rehabilitation savings. At the moment, some stroke patients have such cognitive deficits that they require 24 hour care. Dr Moffat Mathews and I are now trying to find contacts in order to include clinicians and potentially perform a larger study. The final goal we have in mind is to make this training available freely over the internet to stroke survivors.”

“Stroke is the second leading cause of death and a major contributor to disability and the Government is interested in getting patients out of full-time care and into jobs, or at least to have more autonomy in their lives. We hope our work will make a real difference for those people recovering from a stroke,” Professor Mitrovic says.

Stroke is the third largest killer disease in New Zealand and is becoming more important in an aging population. The University of Canterbury team hopes its research will make a difference so patients don’t need full time care and also gain a better quality of life.

About 2500 New Zealanders suffer strokes annually and around 10 percent of stroke deaths occur in people under 65. Stroke is the major cause of serious adult disability with an estimated 60,000 stroke survivors in New Zealand. Many are disabled and need significant daily support.

Almost 1000 students studied computer science and software engineering and the University of Canterbury last year, including 71 postgraduate students.

ENDS

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