Cognitive rehabilitation of naming deficits following viral meningo-encephalitis

Abstract

Objective: This case study describes the neuropsychological assessment and cognitive rehabilitation of a patient who developed word retrieval deficits for objects and people's names, following an episode of viral meningo-encephalitits. It shows the implementation and outcome of two techniques adapted to the patient's individual characteristics and context providing a more ecologically valid approach. Method: In the first technique, "verbal semantic association", the patient was required to describe what she knew about an object as a strategy to help her retrieve its name. In the second one, "face-name association" she was taught to apply a visual-imagery technique in order to retrieve relevant people's names. Results: Following the implementation of these procedures there was a decrease in the number of episodes of failure to retrieve objects and people's names in her everyday life context. Conclusion: The mprovement found in the patient's ability to retrieve words is discussed in terms of the utility of cognitive rehabilitation programmes and cognitive models of language processing.