WASHINGTON D.C., July 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A study conducted at five military and Veterans' hospitals has identified the first effective and highly-scalable intervention to address cognitive deficits that can persist for years after a mild Traumatic Brain Injury — typically from concussion or blast exposure. The intervention studied was the computerized brain training app BrainHQ, made by Posit Science, which was administered via telehealth in the study. The peer-reviewed study results were published in Brain: A Journal of Neurology.

More than 413,000 members of the US military have been diagnosed with a Traumatic Brain Injury. Of these, more than 82% are classified as mild TBI (mTBI), often called the "signature injury" of recent conflicts. In many cases, service members can experience a full recovery from mTBI – but for those who do not, cognitive consequences can persist for years, with life-altering results.

Current best practices for treatment of persistent cognitive deficits following mTBI focus on in-person, customized cognitive rehabilitation, which can be helpful, but is costly, time-consuming, requires travel for treatment and relies on the craft and expertise of the healthcare provider.
The Department of Defense (DoD) funded the BRAVE Study to determine whether a computerized, brain-training intervention based on the science of brain plasticity could be broadly and remotely applied and could produce significant improvements in persistent cognitive deficits across a diverse mTBI population. No computerized cognitive training has previously been shown effective in a gold-standard trial.

BRAVE enrolled 83 participants with a history of mTBI and diagnosed with cognitive impairment. Typically, participants had been deployed to combat areas, and, on average, had cognitive issues that had persisted for more than seven years after their most recent mTBI. Their average age was 33, and 81% were male. Before training, they tested, on average, about two standard deviations below normal on the ANAM (a test used by the military to screen for cognitive impairment).

The participants were randomized into a treatment group (BrainHQ) and an active control group (computer games). Both activities were plausibly expected to have some positive impact due to their demands on cognitive realms, such as attention, memory, and reasoning. Each group self-administered training over the internet in their own homes with weekly telephone supervision from trained coaches and were asked to train for one hour per day, five days per week, over twelve weeks. Comprehensive cognitive assessments were performed before training, after training, and after a twelve-week (no-training) follow-up period.

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