Cognition refers to mental activity, and encompasses brain processes that describe how we gain, store, use, and retrieve knowledge. Cognition includes, but is not limited to, the ideas of attention, memory, visuospatial processing, and executive functioning. Language is also considered a special type of cognitive process. Attention includes the ideas of focusing, concentrating, filtering out internal and external distractions, multitasking, and shifting between ideas or activities. Memory refers to the temporary or long-term storage of knowledge as well as the ability to retrieve knowledge. Visuospatial functions are the brain's work of processing and making sense of the information that comes in through the eyes. Executive functioning is an "umbrella" term for high-level brain processes of coordinating the activities of the rest of the brain; planning, organizing, putting things in order, prioritizing, decision-making, problem solving, analysis, and similar processes.

Several medical problems exist that are associated with memory and cognitive changes:

• Seizure disorders

• Mild Cognitive Impairment

• Dementias

• Brain surgery (resection of part of a lobe or an entire lobe; brain tumors, etc)

• Stroke

• Traumatic brain injury

• Brain tumors

• Cancer Related Cognitive Impairment ("Chemobrain")

• Neurodegenerative diseases

• Encephalopathy

• Other central nervous system (CNS) disorders

Cognitive problems from stroke or other brain problems can occur across multiple brain regions. Deeper parts of the brain (for example, the subcortex) play important roles in cognition, and even the cerebellum, known mostly for movement control, has recently been found to play subtle roles in cognitive processing, possibly related to its connectedness to other brain regions.

In addition to neuropsychologists and occupational therapists, medical speech-language pathologists (SLPs) provide evaluation, management, education, and counseling for individuals with cognitive disorders and their care partners. Interventions may include:

• Empowering individuals with education as to the specific nature of the cognitive disorder to begin the path toward self-management

• Directly working on problematic areas of cognition to achieve maximum neuroplastic benefit

• Development and training of self-cuing and compensatory strategies, as well as the use of adaptive aids and technologies to help cognition

• Modifying the person's settings to improve cognition

• Involving care partners to set the individual up for success.