Neuroplasticity and Rehabilitation

Sarah A. Raskin, PhD, is a board certified clinical neuropsychologist and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Raskin has published numerous articles investigating neuropsychological functions and cognitive rehabilitation for people with a variety of disorders, including brain injury and Parkinson's disease. She has a particular interest in assessment and treatment of prospective memory. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Brain Injury Association of Connecticut and facilitated a brain injury support group for 15 years. Dr. Raskin is coauthor, with Catherine A. Mateer, of Neuropsychological Management of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and creator of the Memory for Intentions Test, a standardized clinical measure of prospective memory. In addition, she is currently funded for work investigating the cognitive and neurophysiological effects of alcohol use in college students.

Brain plasticity is the focus of a growing body of research with significant implications for neurorehabilitation. This state-of-the-art volume explores ways in which brain-injured individuals may be helped not only to compensate for their loss of cognitive abilities, but also possibly to restore those abilities. Expert contributors examine the extent to which damaged cortical regions can actually recover and resume previous functions, as well as how intact regions are recruited to take on tasks once mediated by the damaged region. Evidence-based rehabilitation approaches are reviewed for a range of impairments and clinical populations, including both children and adults.

1. Introduction: Current Approaches to Rehabilitation, Sarah A. Raskin I. Reorganization in the Central Nervous System 2. Neuronal Organization and Change after Brain Injury, Bryan Kolb, Jan Cioe, and Preston Williams 3. Experience-Dependent Changes in Nonhumans, Theresa A. Jones 4. Motor and Sensory Reorganization in Primates, Randolph J. Nudo and Scott Bury 5. Cognitive Reserve, Yaakov Stern 6. Practice-Related Changes in Brain Activity, Sarah A. Raskin, Ginger N. Mills and Julianne T. GarbarinoII. Interventions for Motor and Cognitive Deficits 7. Activity-Based Interventions for Neurorehabilitation, David M. Morris and C. Scott Bickel 8. Malleability and Plasticity in the Neural Systems for Reading and Dyslexia, Bennett A. Shaywitz and Sally E. Shaywitz 9. Neuroplasticity and Rehabilitation of Attention in Children, Jennifer A. Engle and Kimberly A. Kerns 10. Language Therapy, Susan A. Leon, Lynn M. Maher, and Leslie J. Gonzalez Rothi 11. Plasticity of High-Order Cognition: A Review of Experience-Induced Remediation Studies for Executive Deficits, Redmond G. O'Connell and Ian H. Robertson 12. Neuroplasticity and the Treatment of Executive Deficits: Conceptual Considerations, Rema A. Lillie and Catherine A. Mateer 13. What Rehabilitation Clinicians Can Do to Facilitate Experience- Dependent Learning, McKay M. Sohlberg and Laurie Ehlhardt 14. Pharmacological Therapies, Rehabilitation, and Neuroplasticity, John C. Freeland