OBJECTIVE The use of endophenotypes, such as neurological soft signs (NSS), is advocated as one possible method to elucidate the heterogeneity of schizophrenia. Exploring the associations between NSS and specific illness symptoms has revealed some trends, although results have been conflicting. To date, such studies have been conducted largely on Caucasian populations and our pilot study repres...

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Robot-assisted therapy has become increasingly common in neurorehabilitation. Sophisticated controllers have been developed for robots to assist and cooperate with the patient. It is difficult for the patient to judge to what extent the robot contributes to the execution of a movement. Therefore, methods to comprehensively quantify the patient's contribution and provide feedback are of key impo...

Rehabilitation interventions have changed little in the last few decades, aside from improvements in materials and medical care. Most neurorehabilitation research involves geriatric patients since most disabling neurologic disease occurs in older populations. Proving rehabilitation intervention efficacy is difficult for methodological reasons. New technologies and neuroscience advances allow us...

Pain is very common in the neurorehabilitation setting, where it may not only represent a target for treatment but can also negatively influence rehabilitation procedures directly or through the side effects of painkillers. To date, there are neither guidelines nor consensus on how to assess and treat pain in neurorehabilitation. Because of the very scanty pieces of evidence on this topic, the ...

Neuroscience has fundamentally changed the understanding of learning and memory within recent years. Here, the authors discuss a number of specific areas where they believe new understanding of the CNS from basic science is having a fundamental impact on neurorehabilitation and is leading to new therapeutic approaches. These areas have constituted a basis for development of some basic principle...

The operational model and strategies designed for use in the S. Anna - Research in Advanced Neurorehabilitation Institute for the care and neurorehabilitation of subjects in the vegetative or minimally conscious states are described here. A total of 722 patients were admitted, cared for and discharged from the institute in the period 1998-2009. Application of the model approach has progressivel...

Approximately 1 million people have aphasia in the United States today, yet with properly targeted therapy in selected patients effective communication can be restored. Current approaches to treatment of aphasia include psycholinguistic theory-driven therapy, cognitive neurorehabilitation, computer-aided techniques, psychosocial management, and (still on an experimental basis) pharmacotherapy.

Despite recent advances in acute stroke management, many stroke patients suffer from long-term disability. Most stroke patients regain their function partially or fully during the first 3 to 6 months depending on many factors ; pre-stroke, stroke and post-stroke factors. Brain plasticity plays a major role during stroke recovery, and motor-relearning and brain plasticity shares the common mecha...

Rosanna De Meo, Micah M. Murray, Stephanie Clarke and Pawel J. Matusz* 1 Neuropsychology and Neurorehabilitation Service, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland 2 Electroencephalography Brain Mapping Core, Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland 3 The Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology, Neuropsychology ...