Abstract TP320: The Effect of Stroke Type and Lateralization on Longitudinal Cognitive Changes During Stroke Recovery

This project, to our knowledge, is the first longitudinal study to simultaneously examine how stroke lateralization (right (RH) vs left (LH) hemisphere) and type (ischemic (IS) vs hemorrhagic (HH)) uniquely influence cognitive recovery, specifically verbal learning and visuospatial memory. Understanding these distinctions may inform more effective post-stroke therapies. From a larger cohort, this pilot study recruited 56 English-speaking post-stroke patients (~54 years old) who underwent the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test (BVMT) across acute, subacute, and chronic phases of recovery. Participants were stratified by lesion type and location, with groups matched for age, stroke timing, lesion volume, and standard care hours. Change in HVLT and BVMT recall T-scores were assessed using paired two-tailed t-tests for within-group comparisons and unpaired one-tailed t-tests for between-group comparisons (e.g. LH vs RH, IS vs HH). Hemispheric differences within stroke types were also examined. LH participants showed significant BVMT and HVLT improvements from acute to subacute phases (p