Purpose This study investigated the effects of an intensive cognitive-communication rehabilitation (ICCR) program for young individuals with chronic acquired brain injury. Method ICCR included classroom lectures; metacognitive instruction, modeling, and application; technology skills training; and individual cognitive–linguistic therapy. Four individuals participated in the intensive program (6 hr with 1-hr lunch break × 4 days × 12 weeks of treatment): 3 participants completed 3 consecutive semesters, and 1 participant completed 1 semester. Two controls did not receive treatment and completed assessments before and after the 12-week treatment interval only. Results All 4 experimental participants demonstrated significant improvements on at least 1 standardized cognitive–linguistic measure, whereas controls did not. Furthermore, time point significantly predicted participants' scores on 2 of the 4 standardized outcome measures, indicating that as duration in ICCR increased, scores also increased. Participants who completed multiple semesters of ICCR also improved in their therapy and personal goals, classroom behavior, life participation, and quality of life. Conclusion After ICCR, participants showed gains in their cognitive–linguistic functioning, classroom participation, and individual therapy. They also demonstrated improvements outside the classroom and in their overall well-being. There is a gap between the large population of young adults with acquired brain injury who wish to return to higher education and a lack of rehabilitation programs supporting reentry into academic environments; ICCR is a first step in reducing that gap.

Reading and writing impairments are common in individuals with post-stroke aphasia. Treatment typically aims to improve the function of one of these modalities by strengthening aspects of either lexical or sublexical processing. In the present study, eight adults with acquired alexia and agraphia were administered a comprehensive treatment targeting specific lexical and sublexical processes underlying reading and/or writing. Two participants were trained in reading and six were trained in writing. Throughout treatment, reading and writing accuracy were monitored for trained items, as well as untrained but orthographically and semantically related items. Linear mixed effects models indicated that the most substantial gains were made on trained items in the trained modality; generalisation to trained items in the untrained modality and untrained but related items in both modalities was also observed. Participants improved significantly on a subset of treatment steps intended to address lexical access and representations, sublexical conversion mechanisms, and the graphemic and/or phonological buffer processes in both modalities. These results demonstrate the efficacy of a novel, comprehensive treatment protocol and suggest that targeting multiple reading and writing processes in conjunction may facilitate widespread generalisation.

Dual-route neuropsychological models posit two distinct but interrelated pathways for reading and writing: the lexical and the sublexical. Individuals with reading/writing deficits often rely on the combined power of the integrated system to perform print-processing tasks. The resultant errors reflect varying degrees of lexical and sublexical accuracy in a single production; however, no system presently exists to analyze errors robustly in both routes. The goal of this project was to develop a system that simultaneously, quantitatively, and qualitatively captures changes in lexical and sublexical errors following treatment. Errors are evaluated hierarchically in both routes according to proximity to a target. This dual-route error scoring (DRES) system was developed using data from a novel treatment study for eight patients with acquired alexia/agraphia; a computerised version of the system was also developed (ADRES). Repeated-measures multivariate analyses of variance and post hoc analyses revealed significant dual-route treatment effects. Qualitative analyses revealed unique patterns of change across participants, reflecting the benefits of error evaluation beyond a binary correct/incorrect judgment. Finally, categorical error shifts were observed via group-level analysis. The results of this study indicate that treatment-induced evolution of reading/writing can be meaningfully and comprehensively represented by this novel scoring system.

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In this study, seaweed concertation in a model system (cracker) was investigated to better understand addition of seaweed on starch modulation, texture, and consumer attribute detection. Temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) showed that seaweed concentrations over 15% had a dominant attribute of fishy for both Wakame and Sea Spaghetti varieties, whereas for both, Crunchy was observed for the 5% and 10% crackers. This corralled well with the texture analysis where crackers fortified with both seaweeds at 5% and 10% have a harder texture, with lower fracturability compared to higher concentrated seaweed crackers. The fracturability levels within the 15% and 20% crackers were comparable to the no substitution controls. In vitro digestion indicated that glucose was liberated immediately after initiation, with both seaweed systems reaching plateau by 4 minutes. In this study it was observed that seaweed variety affected starch digestibility, with wakame seaweed inhibiting starch digestion.