Brain Injury Awareness: Cognitive Rehab Works

Mild brain injury can result from childhood concussions, sports injuries, and even minor car accidents. Brain injury patients often suffer from long-term cognitive and neurological problems, with a need for practical rehabilitation tools that bring lasting change. Researchers from Colorado Springs and Shreveport, LA recently completed an extensive study with six brain injury patients to evaluate the neural, cognitive, and real-life changes as a result of one-on-one cognitive training.

The idea behind personalized cognitive training for brain injury rehabilitation is exactly the same as working with a physical therapist to recover from an injury such as a broken leg. While there are certainly exercises to be done at home, lasting progress results from the intensity and consistency of working individually with a professional.

According to the Frontiers In Human Neuroscience publication, after 14 weeks of personalized brain training every brain injury patient experienced significant improvements in cognitive test scores, with a mean IQ improvement of 20 points. They reported a variety of real-life changes including better mood, improved work/school performance, increased cognitive abilities, restored social identity, and improved Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs). Even more astounding, MRI studies of the patients revealed significant improvements in neural connectivity, with correlating increases in IQ.

While brain injuries can vary from mildly damaging to wildly devastating, there is hope for rehabilitation with one-on-one cognitive training.

By Terissa Michele Miller, MS Psy

Check out the original research:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00229/full

A variation of this article was originally published in Modern Brain Journal.

About the author:
Teri Miller is a mom of nine and child development researcher with a Masters of Science in Psychology. She is a Research Associate at Gibson Institute of Cognitive Research, co-host of the podcast Brainy Momsand the Managing Editor at Modern Brain Journal.