Does computerized cognitive rehabilitation work? A review

Abstract

The evidence for the effectiveness of computer-based cognitive rehabilitation in adults with non-degenerative, acquired brain damage is reviewed. Data on the usefulness of computers in recreation, as prostheses, as teaching machines or in other related areas of rehabilitation are not reviewed. There is no evidence that computerized memory training or visuoperceptual rehabilitation produces significant changes in cognitive function. Some highly specific disorders of language may improve with particular training programmes but, on the whole, there is as yet no published evidence of more general effectiveness of language rehabilitation, although there exist some promising preliminary results that more general-language programmes may in some cases produce significant effects in test situations. Only in attentional training do fairly clear positive results emerge from four papers, although other studies using similar training procedures have yielded negative results. No computer cognitive rehabilitation procedures have been shown to generalize to real life and there is no existing empirical basis for the sale or distribution of any computerized cognitive rehabilitation programmes for non-research purposes. While there is a promising basis for further research, future studies must demonstrate that computer-based cognitive rehabilitation does more good than harm.