Association of the alterations in the components of working memory (WM) with the brain hemisphere affected after an ischemic stroke

OBJECTIVE: Determine the alterations in the components of the WM and its relationship with the hemisphere of location of the lesion in patients with ischemic stroke. METHODS: This is an observational, analytical, correlational and cross-sectional study. The participants of this study were 49 patients between 50 and 75 years of age in the city of Medellín, Colombia, who had suffered an ischemic stroke with a period of evolution of the event equal to or greater than one year. We evaluated WM with the WAIS IV Working Memory Index and a WM self-report questionnaire. To exclude patients with major cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) were used. RESULTS: There are no differences in the WM components’ performance between the groups with right and left hemisphere lesions. It has been observed that patients with an
ischemic stroke presented a performance in WM tests below average. The effect size was small. CONCLUSIONS: There are no differences in the components of working memory performance according to the hemisphere injured by ischemic stroke. Some results seem to indicate that working memory affects metacognition and introspection.