Strokes can cause damage to parts of the brain responsible for memory, learning, and awareness. Survivors may have dramatically shortened attention spans or may experience deficits in short-term memory. Individuals also may lose their ability to make plans, comprehend meaning, learn new tasks, or engage in other complex mental activities. Two fairly common deficits resulting from a stroke are anosognosia, an inability to acknowledge the reality of the physical impairments resulting from a stroke, and
"neglect," the loss of the ability to respond to objects or sensory stimuli located on one side of the body, usually the stroke-impaired side.
Stroke survivors who develop apraxia lose their ability to plan the steps involved in a complex task and to carry the steps out in the proper sequence, and may have problems following a set of instructions. Apraxia appears to be caused by a disruption of the subtle connections that exist between thought and action.
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