ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasises the conditions such as head injury, stroke and encephalitic illnesses in which continuing deterioration of higher mental functioning is not predicted. It shows the patient population investigated in the Newcastle Cognitive Retraining study that was composed of patients suffering severe head injury, stroke or herpes simplex encephalitis, and discusses many ideas, particularly the models of rehabilitation, with reference to the aforementioned groups of neurologically impaired individuals. Stroke patients appear to be ideal candidates for the study of cognitive retraining as virtually all cognitive recovery that is likely to occur will have taken place prior to the start of retraining. Cases of herpes simplex virus encephalitis also appear at present with a relatively stable picture in terms of spontaneous recovery of cognitive functioning once the initial acute stage of the illness is over. Severe head injury presents a pattern of recovery in which different cognitive functions appear to recover at different rates.
