Table 3.

Examples of remaining cognitive symptoms per domain

Cognitive domain	Example quote
Episodic memory
Prospective memory	“Someone says that he’ll be late Friday. That’s forgotten. The hard drive is full”. (Participant I)
Retrospective memory	“I may have done or put something somewhere and can’t remember it. Sometimes, I can rewind memory and remember. Other times, it’s like it never happened”. (Participant B)
Self-cued memory	“If I know that something is important to memorize, then I’ll have to think about it actively […] For example, in order to remember dentist appointments, I note them in the calendar. Sometimes, I miss it anyway, so I’ve placed a toothbrush on the bureau in the hallway. That is, I visualize to remember things. If I’ve been somewhere, I try to remember the environment around me: what kind of weather or what year it is, or the people that’s there. That kind of stuff can help me remember things in the future”. (Participant J)
New learning	“How can I get a job now that I can’t learn new things? It doesn’t stick. […] If someone explains how to do something, 2 seconds - or 2 minutes - later it’s gone again”. (Participant G2)
Attention/ concentration
General concentration	“I can read three pages three times and still not remember that I’ve read it. I just see the text”. (Participant D)”
Vigilance	“At work, during long administrative meetings, you need to sit there and listen, and then to be in groups writing post-its, expressing your opinions and summarizing. You need to work and be present and focused the whole day, which I can’t cope with. During long meetings, I start to fiddle with my cell phone or go to the rest room or something like that. I’m affected in not having stamina. It’s like I can perform well but not for too long”. (Participant B2)
Executive functions
Inhibition	“If I deliberately make up my mind and really focus and get rid of all external impressions – which is energy consuming – it [the ability to concentrate] kind of works. But I have to make an active choice. Normally, it doesn’t really stick, thought-wise, but sometimes, if I decide to allocate energy, concentration and put everything else aside, then it might work pretty well”. (Participant B).
Cognitive flexibility	“Let’s say I’m cooking. I need to be totally focussed on what I am doing. Then someone comes in and says something to me and I just feel 'God what was I doing? Did I do it wrong? Did I really put milk in whatever needed milk?'" (Participant Y).
Working memory	“I lose the thread easily. When saying something, I start asking myself: “Where the heck am I going with this?” So even as I’m thinking, I easily lose track of where I’m going. And if I’m interrupted, I can’t always remember what I was just saying”. (Participant Z).
Higher-order EF/ problem solving	“I don’t have the ability to think. I do work that involves analysis and I can’t do it, it’s like it just stops. I recently tried to increase my work hours which now resulted in me staying a week home from work. I got extremely dizzy and have difficulties understanding ordinary, simple things at home, like how to assemble kitchen appliances”. (Participant O)
Initiation	“What really bothers me is memory and concentration. It’s like things are not getting done the way they used to […] You don’t get around to the actual execution of things and don’t start doing them until it’s a crisis”. (Participant V)
Speed	“The sluggish thinking has been present pretty much all the time. If I need to think or say something more advanced, or really focus on something, I feel that I can’t manage to think the sentence to the end. It is too tough”. (Participant Y)
Mental fatigue	“It [the mental fatigue] is still present in that I can’t sort things out. I don't know how to sort or start doing things”. (Participant V)