Background/Objective: Tracheostomy (TCT) creates an artificial airway, essential for overcoming obstructions or enabling long-term ventilation. Decannulation represents a critical step in recovery, with its success strongly influenced by the underlying indication for tracheostomy and the patient’s clinical profile. Successful decannulation requires careful assessment of multiple factors, including respiratory function and underlying pathology. This scoping review aims to identify and categorize these predictive factors, crucial for optimizing decannulation protocols and patient outcomes. Methods: A scoping review was conducted using the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, EBSCOhost, and Scopus databases (22 February 2025–3 March 2025) to identify studies regarding predictors of successful decannulation. Studies examining physiological, clinical, and demographic factors associated with decannulation outcomes were included. Data were extracted using a standardized form and synthesized narratively. Results: Fifty studies reported a male representation averaging 67% of the total patient population, comprising 2238 males and 1281 females aged 50–70 with acquired brain injuries, employing retrospective and prospective designs. Positive decannulation outcomes correlate with strong cough, effective secretion management, younger age, and robust neurological status. Adverse events were generally mild, with recannulation being infrequent. Conversely, advanced age, chronic lung disease, a high body mass index, and prolonged mechanical ventilation negatively influence decannulation success. Conclusions: It was highlighted that successful decannulation is the result of various physiological, clinical, and demographic factors. Significantly, strong respiratory function, demonstrated by powerful cough reflexes and efficient secretion control, stands out as a fundamental predictive factor.

Background and Objectives: Theory of mind (ToM) deficits in children with ADHD are closely related to social difficulties and problems in interpersonal interactions. Evidence suggests that these cognitive deficits negatively affect the ability to understand and respond to others’ emotions and intentions, thus contributing to social isolation and a lower quality of life. However, the findings across studies vary, indicating that ADHD subtype and comorbidities, such as anxiety and mood disorders, can significantly influence sociocognitive deficits, modulating the extent of social problems. Materials and Methods: This review examines the relationship among ADHD, ToM, and empathy, analyzing studies comparing children with ADHD with peers with typical development or other neurodevelopmental conditions. A search in PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library prior to January 10, without time restrictions, using “ADHD”, “Cognitive Empathy”, and “Theory of Mind” identified relevant studies assessing these abilities through neuropsychological tests or questionnaires. Results: Of the initial 243 studies, 23 studies met the inclusion criteria. Children with ADHD exhibited significant impairments in ToM and empathy, affecting social cognition and interpersonal understanding. Various assessment tools revealed difficulties in understanding beliefs, emotions, and intentions, with executive function deficits playing a crucial role in shaping these social challenges. Conclusions: This review highlights the need for targeted therapeutic interventions that not only address cognitive deficits but consider emotional and metacognitive aspects, such as emotion regulation and self-awareness. Future research should focus on integrating executive function training with approaches that develop metacognitive and emotional skills, thus providing more comprehensive support.

Background: Emotionally salient music may enhance attention-focused rehabilitation, yet concurrent music plus virtual-reality programs in chronic stroke are largely untested. We assessed whether personalized emotional music stimulation (EMS) layered onto a standardized virtual reality rehabilitation system (VRRS) augments cognitive, affective, physiological, and functional outcomes. Methods: In a quasi-randomized outpatient trial, 20 adults ≥ 6 months post-ischemic stroke were allocated by order of recruitment to VRRS alone (control, n = 10) or VRRS+EMS (experimental, n = 10). Both groups performed 45 min of active VRRS cognitive training (3×/week, 8 weeks), while the EMS group received approximately 60 min sessions including setup and feedback phases. Primary outcomes were cognition and global function; secondary outcomes were intrinsic motivation, depression, anxiety, and heart rate. Non-parametric tests with effect sizes and Δ-scores were used. Results: The experimental group improved across all domains: cognition (median +4.5 points), motivation (median +54 points), depression (median −3.5 points), anxiety (median −4.0 points), heart rate (median −6.35 beats per minute), and disability (median one-grade improvement), each with large effects. The control group showed smaller gains in cognition and motivation and a modest heart-rate reduction, without significant changes in mood or disability. At post-treatment, the music group outperformed controls on cognition, motivation, and disability. Change-score analyses favored the music group for every endpoint. Larger heart-rate reductions correlated with greater improvements in depression (ρ = 0.73, p < 0.001) and anxiety (ρ = 0.58, p = 0.007). Conclusions: Adding personalized emotional music to virtual-reality attention training produced coherent, clinically relevant gains in cognition, mood, motivation, autonomic regulation, and independence compared with virtual reality alone.

Background: Acquired brain injury (ABI) is a heterogeneous umbrella term encompassing traumatic and nontraumatic etiologies and is frequently associated with persistent cognitive dysfunction. Conventional neuropsychological assessment remains central to clinical evaluation, but feasibility and measurement precision may be limited in individuals with motor impairment, aphasia, reduced stamina, or fluctuating arousal. Eye tracking offers an objective, low-burden approach that can quantify gaze behavior during task engagement and may provide complementary process-level markers of cognition. Objective: This study aimed to systematically synthesize the evidence on eye-tracking paradigms used as a primary approach for cognitive assessment in ABI and to summarize findings by cognitive domain, paradigm, and clinical interpretability. Methods: We conducted a PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) 2020–compliant systematic review and registered the protocol in PROSPERO (CRD420251038768). PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Embase, EBSCOhost, PsycINFO, and Scopus were searched from inception to April 10, 2025. We included peer-reviewed English-language studies enrolling children or adults with ABI in which eye tracking was the primary assessment modality used to quantify at least one cognitive domain or clinically relevant cognitive-communication process. Two reviewers independently screened studies, extracted data, and assessed methodological quality using design-appropriate tools (Risk of Bias 2, Risk of Bias in Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions, Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2, and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale). A structured narrative synthesis was performed because of heterogeneity in paradigms and outcome definitions. Results: Twenty-seven studies met the inclusion criteria (N=872 participants; females: n=354 and males: n=518), with most evidence derived from mild traumatic brain injury cohorts, and fewer studies involving stroke, mixed etiologies, and disorders of consciousness. Across domains, antisaccade and related paradigms were commonly associated with differences in inhibitory control and executive function, while predictive tracking, smooth pursuit, and target-blanking paradigms frequently captured alterations in attentional prediction and timing. Virtual reality (VR) free-viewing paradigms identified visuospatial exploration asymmetries in stroke-related neglect, and gaze-based human-computer interface approaches demonstrated above-chance task performance in a subset of patients with disorders of consciousness. Evidence for incremental validity beyond conventional assessment was mixed and often indirect, and safety reporting was uncommon. Overall certainty of evidence was generally low and limited by small sample sizes, cross-sectional designs, and heterogeneity in acquisition procedures, metrics, and analytic pipelines. Conclusions: Eye tracking shows potential as an adjunctive, process-level approach for quantifying specific cognition-relevant behaviors after ABI, particularly within paradigms targeting inhibitory control and predictive attention. Current evidence is insufficient to support broad diagnostic claims or the routine replacement of conventional neuropsychological assessment. Future research should prioritize harmonized paradigms and reporting standards, external validation of classification models, longitudinal designs, and explicit feasibility and safety reporting to clarify when eye tracking provides incremental clinical value for precision neurorehabilitation.

Background/Objectives: Spatial neglect after stroke may be difficult to characterize in patients with severe motor, cognitive, and communication impairment. Augmentative and alternative communication interfaces require visual scanning and intentional selection and may therefore provide an ecological context in which lateralized visuospatial behavior becomes clinically observable. Methods: A 58-year-old man with a unilateral right-hemisphere hemorrhagic stroke underwent serial assessment at baseline before training, at the end of 24 AAC sessions delivered over 2 months in addition to standard neurorehabilitation, and at 1-month follow-up. Measures included cognitive functioning, behavioral responsiveness, global disability, bedside communication status, and P300 latency. The AAC/eye-tracking intervention also generated process data across 21 analyzable sessions, including calibration quality, free-exploration heatmaps, and performance in the Stars and Bow-Target tasks. Results: Global measures showed modest early improvement followed by stabilization. Cognitive functioning improved from 2 to 3 and remained stable, behavioral responsiveness increased from 7 to 10 and then to 11, bedside communication increased from 7 to 9 and remained stable, and P300 latency decreased from 393 to 350 and then to 351 ms, whereas global disability remained unchanged at 25 throughout. Calibration was at least good in all quadrants and never scored 0. Performance was lower and more unstable in Stars than in Bow-Target. Heatmaps showed rightward clustering, reduced left-sided exploration, and limited whole-screen scanning. Conclusions: AAC/eye-tracking did not provide formal diagnostic proof of neglect, but it supported ecological recognition of a neglect-like lateralized exploratory pattern under less guided conditions.

Background/Objectives: Nutritional changes after spinal cord injury (SCI) can affect bodily appearance and experience, but their relationship with body-image is not consistently defined. This scoping review maps the constructs, measurements, and empirical contributions addressing this intersection. Methods: Guidance from the Joanna Briggs Institute and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews informed this review. Searches were conducted on 12 September 2026 and were updated on 16 October 2026 across clinical and psychological sources. Two reviewers independently assessed records and reports, with third-reviewer adjudication. Eligible evidence concerned acquired SCI at age 10 years or older or relevant professional perspectives, alongside distinguishable nutritional, and body-image domains. Quantitative associations, co-assessment, and qualitative connections were charted separately with design-specific appraisal and cohort linkage. Results: This review includes 36 reports published between 1989 and 2026: 24 contributed patient qualitative findings, 3 contributed professional qualitative perspectives, and 9 contributed quantitative findings. Weight change, perceived muscularity, abdominal appearance, and eating practices were connected with acceptance, attractiveness, and participation. Quantitative evidence combined a small number of direct relational analyses with descriptive co-assessment. Statistical inconsistencies, uncertain measurement properties, and shared samples limited interpretation. Improved satisfaction coexisted with increased adiposity in one uncontrolled report. Adolescent evidence remained sparse. Conclusions: Nutritional health and body-image warrant distinct measurement, even when considered together. The evidence identifies experiences and assessment gaps rather than a causal pathway or an effective combined intervention. Longitudinal construct-specific research is needed before the proposed rehabilitation applications can be evaluated.