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Executive functions include functions such as planning, working memory, inhibition, mental flexibility, and action monitoring and initiation, and are essential to carry out an independent everyday life. Individuals suffering from brain injury, such as a stroke, very commonly experience executive deficits that reduce the capacity to regain functional independence. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in developing tablet computer-based cognitive training programs for stroke patients and healthy aging adults since such programs can be included in non-supervised environments. In this respect, we described and evaluated the usability of a novel tablet application (app) for executive function training, developed in the context of the MEMORI-net project, a cross-border Italy-Slovenia program for the rehabilitation of stroke patients. We conducted a pilot study with a non-clinical sample of 16 participants to obtain information about the usability of the sFEra APP. Our descriptive analyses suggest that most users were satisfied with the overall experience and the app was highly usable, and instructions were clear, even with little previous experience with tablet applications. Acceptability and effectiveness will need to be evaluated in a clinical randomized controlled study.

In the present paper we report the performance on object use and on semantic tasks of two patients, D.L. with probable semantic dementia, and A.M. with an atypical onset of dementia of Alzheimer, assessed twice two years apart. In particular, we investigated whether the patients' ability to use objects degraded as a function of their semantic knowledge about those objects. Results from the two assessments in 2002 and in 2004 confirmed that both patients had a selective loss of the lexical-semantic knowledge, despite a relative preservation of the other cognitive abilities including object use. This pattern of results suggests that semantic knowledge is not necessarily involved in the correct use of objects.