ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Cognitive Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1677642
This article is part of the Research TopicUnlocking Potential: Cognitive Rehabilitation for Individuals with Acquired Brain InjuriesView all 9 articles
Cognitive training improves executive function and cognitive self-efficacy in young women with chronic stroke: A Pilot Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Texas Woman's University, Denton, United States
- 2The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, United States
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Introduction: Young women are increasingly affected by stroke and often experience persistent executive function deficits that impact global functioning. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a strategy-based cognitive training program (Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training) to improve executive function and related outcomes in young women with stroke. Methods: Eight women with chronic-stage stroke (age: M = 38.75 years; SD = ± 8.78) and eight age-and education-matched controls (age: M = 35.75 years; SD ± 7.71) completed 10 sessions of SMART over 5 weeks, with pre-and post-training assessments. Outcomes included measures of executive function (subtests of the BrainHealth Index), daily living skills (Cognitive Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, Daily Living Questionnaire, and Community Integration Questionnaire), and psychosocial functioning (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21), as well as feasibility/goodness of fit of the program 1) Acceptability of Intervention Measure, Intervention, Appropriateness Measure, and Feasibility of Intervention Measure. Results: Following SMART, participants with stroke demonstrated improvements in aspects of executive function (including abstraction, strategic memory, and fluency of ideas), cognitive self-efficacy, and stress. Control participants also demonstrated gains, particularly in cognitive self-efficacy. Feasibility was rated highly by participants with stroke. Discussion: Findings support SMART as a promising intervention for enhancing cognitive and functional outcomes in young women with stroke, warranting further large-scale investigation.
Keywords: Executive Function, Daily living skills, Young women, chronic stroke, cognitive training
Received: 01 Aug 2025; Accepted: 18 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Scheffler, Vas, Hay, Griggs-Stapleton and Cook. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Michelle Scheffler, mshannahan@twu.edu
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