A brain training programme has been shown to deliver cognitive improvements for military personnel with mild traumatic brain injury in a third of the time of standard methods.
The study involved 148 active-duty service members experiencing persistent cognitive issues following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).
Researchers compared two cognitive rehabilitation protocols and found both delivered similar gains, but one required significantly less time to complete.
The trial was conducted by the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas, in collaboration with the Traumatic Brain Injury Center of Excellence team at Camp Pendleton.
It compared Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Tactics (SMART) – a 20-hour training programme – with the 60-hour Study of Cognitive Rehabilitation Effectiveness (SCORE).
SMART takes a “top-down” approach, teaching and practising strategies that support self-agency, flexible thinking and problem-solving that can be applied in daily life.
SCORE uses a “bottom-up” method, combining foundational skill-building for memory, attention and planning with computer-based attention training.
Despite the difference in duration, both groups achieved comparable improvements in cognitive performance. The findings suggest SMART may be a more efficient and potentially lower-cost method of cognitive rehabilitation.
Lead author Erin Venza, head of clinical operations at the Center for BrainHealth, said@ “Top-down SMART brain training is about exercising the executive networks, which are essentially the brain’s CEO.
“Cognitive strategies to think strategically and problem-solve creatively can empower people to thrive in their lives, even when facing ongoing challenges.”
The results may be especially relevant for service members, where cognitive resilience and adaptability are essential to operational readiness.
Co-author Jennifer Zientz, director of programmes at the Center for BrainHealth. said: “These findings suggest that SMART brain training can contribute to a faster return to mission readiness, which is critical for our warfighters.
“Like a single-issue pair of boots, we only get one brain – so we need to take the best care of it we can.”
The shorter training period may also improve access to support for other groups in high-demand professions, such as veterans, law enforcement officers and first responders.
Over the past 15 years, the Center for BrainHealth has worked with more than 6,000 active-duty personnel, veterans and their families from all military branches.
This experience helped inform the SMART protocols tested in the trial.
