Acquired Reading Impairment Following Brain Injury

This large-scale patient study investigated the rate, unique signatures associated with acquired reading impairments, its neurocognitive correlates and long-term outcome in 731 acute stroke patients using the sentence- and nonword reading subtests of Birmingham Cognitive Screen (BCoS). The objectives for the study were to explore the: (i) potentially different error patterns among adult patients (ii) associative relationship between the different subclasses of reading impairment and performance in other cognitive domains, and (iii) recovery rates in patients nine months post-lesion compared with their initial performance. The study revealed distinctive reading impairment profiles in patients with left hemisphere (LH) and right hemisphere (RH) lesions. Some interesting associations between reading disorder and other cognitive functions were observed. Nine months post-lesion, both groups showed some recovery in reading performance compared with their baseline performance, but the rate of improvement was higher for the LH group. The study reveals unique reading profiles and impairment patterns among left and right hemisphere lesions. The findings of the study provide a deeper understanding of reading deficits that will inform clinical practice, planning of rehabilitative interventions of brain injured patients, and the scientific community.