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NeurXercise and Its Application - Cognitive Remediation for Brain Injury and Neurological Illness: Real Life Changes, by Marvin H. Podd. 2012. New York: Springer Publishing, 171 pp., $69.95 (HB).

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2013

Christine Clancy*
Affiliation:
Department of Rehabilitation Psychology, Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle, WA, USA.
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Abstract

Type
Book Reviews
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2013 

Cognitive Remediation for Brain Injury and Neurological Illness: Real Life Changes begins with an extremely brief and superficial outline of the history of cognitive remediation and the important role it plays in recovery from brain injury, which has limited clinical utility. The following chapter clearly delineates the need for a thorough neuropsychological assessment prior to beginning a program of cognitive remediation, but the main focus is on outlining the cognitive domains typically assessed by neuropsychologists and the tests most often used to assess those domains, which is too simplistic for the experienced neuropsychologist. The middle chapters of the book are somewhat redundant. Again, there is a review of pertinent cognitive domains along with an introduction of the use of the computer-assisted cognitive remediation software, NeurXercise, which was developed by Podd and his colleague, Don Seelig. The author then devotes an entire chapter to single case studies illustrating the application of the various NeurXercise tasks to different populations, e.g., head injury, stroke, subcortical disorders, geriatrics, learning disability, and attention deficit disorder. The chapter is laden with discussion of how various individuals perform over time as part of a cognitive remediation program using these tasks without a thorough explanation of what is entailed in each task. The author includes many appendices at the end of the book listing cognitive domains, the standardized neuropsychological tests used to assess them, and the names of the NeurXercise tasks that could be used, but nowhere is an adequate description provided of what each of the NeurXercise tasks entails. Perhaps this has been done purposefully for copyright reasons or intellectual property concerns, but it makes the casebook chapter cumbersome and very difficult to read. As the reader progresses through the book, it becomes increasingly apparent that the title of the book is misleading. It is not a reference book or one that would be shared with students or trainees to learn more about cognitive remediation. Instead, it reads more like a proclamation of the longstanding work of Podd and Seelig. As such, a more fitting or accurate title of the book might be NeurXercise and Its Application. In addition to its limited clinical utility, the content is heavily grounded in Luria's brain functioning theory and the utilization of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery as it pertains to adults, which restricts its appeal and applicability to a wider range of professionals.