Abstract:
Cerebral stroke is the very common cause of executive dysfunctions, such as disinhibition and inability to switch of attention. The aim of this longitudinal study was to determine a clinical characteristic of executive dysfunctions in light of the neuropsychological examinations. Forty-four patients who had ischemic stroke were examined twice with a twelve-month interval. At each session executive functions were measured on the same patients. Executive functioning was measured by three popular tasks, i.e. an experimental version of the Stroop Color Word Interference Test, Verbal Fluency Test, and Trail Making Test. Twenty-five healthy volunteers were examined once only to transform patients’ results of neuropsychological testing into standardized form. Executive impairment was found in 24 patients (i.e. 65% of the clinical group), who failed to complete at least one of the three tests. Patients manifested executive dysfunctions which were highly heterogeneous with respect to character, severity and their prevalence. Overall, there was clear evidence that executive functions showed substantial recovery. Time course of distinct executive dysfunctions was similar.
