COGNITIVE RETRAINING IN NEURODEGENERATIVE DISORDERS: A SCOPING REVIEW

Background:There is a decline in cognitive functions in neurodegenerative disorders. Cognitive deficits are often treated with cognitive rehabilitation which can improve their functionality in day-to-day life. This scoping review aimed to explore the current studies available on cognitive retraining in various neurodegenerative disorders. Method: The review followed the six stages outlined by Arksey and O’Mally guidelines. The articles were searched through database like PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Science Direct, EBSCO, ProQuest and APA PsycNet. The following information was extracted from the included studies, such as, author, year, objective, country, study design, material and methods, major findings. Results:About 287 articles were extracted based on their titles and abstracts. Their screening resulted in 104 eligible articles. The review of these articles have found that most Randomized Control Trials have focused on various cognitive domains such as attention, memory, and/or executive functions; age range; different psychiatric and neurological disorders. There has been significant improvement in functionality, behavioral and psychopathological domains of the individuals. The limitations of our results were no follow-up studies to explore the after effect of intervention, articles did not specifically reflect the local, cultural appropriate contexts. The future systematic research addresses increased generalizability of intervention, replication on larger samples, with control group, longitudinal studies, optimal duration of rehabilitation and long-term effects of cognitive retraining on patients. Conclusion:Lastly, it implies that intensive cognitive retraining tends to strengthen the brain plasticity and increases synaptic pruning in the brain. The culturally-appropriate retraining has shown improvement in an individual.