Verbalizer-Visualizer Style in Brain-lesioned Patients: Does Rehabilitation Matter?

The paper aims at investigating the tendency to rely on both verbal or visual representation and strategies in patients recently affected by brain injuries and to assess the role of rehabilitation treatment in modulating such a tendency. Thirty patients were administered self-report questionnaires measuring the verbalizer-visualizer style within six months from the traumatic event and the rehabilitation training they followed was taken into account. Results showed that deficits in memory and executive functions, and mainly in visual-spatial cognition, reduced the tendency toward visualization. Such a reduction was prevalently associated to lesions in the right hemisphere. No difference was found according to treatment (motor, occupational, logopedic and neuropsychological rehabilitation). Findings stress time passed from the triggering event as the critical factor influencing cognitive style and rehabilitation efficacy.