Impact of anxiety on verbal and visuospatial working memory in patients with acute stroke without severe cognitive impairment

Background Working memory is the most impaired cognitive domain in the acute phase of stroke. In a context where anxiety is highly prevalent, close attention must be paid to anxiety which could mimic mild to moderate working memory impairments. This is the first study to assess the contribution of state anxiety (the currently experienced level of anxiety) to the working memory (verbal, visuospatial) in patients with first-ever acute stroke without severe cognitive impairment. Methods 28 patients with first-ever acute stroke and 41 matched control subjects were exposed to a neutral condition and an anxiogenic condition in which verbal (VWM) and visuospatial working memory (VSWM) performance and state anxiety were assessed. State anxiety was assessed before the beginning of the experiment (baseline), after the neutral condition and after the anxiogenic condition. Results The mean state anxiety score was higher in patients than in controls in the neutral (z=1.9, p