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Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair

Asha Vas, Sandra Chapman, Sina Alsan, Jeffrey Spence, Molly Keebler, Gisella Rodriguez-Larrain, Barry Rodgers, Tiffani Jantz, David Martinez, Jelena Rakic and Daniel Krawczyk

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Overview

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a chronic condition that can result in persistent impairments in complex cognitive processes years after sustaining an injury. In addition to impairments in cognitive processes, these individuals may also experience persistent functional deficits, altered emotions, and physical symptoms such as headaches. Cognitive training programs are often implemented to mitigate the deficits. The SMART™ program helped individuals with TBI show improvement in executive function, memory, abstract reasoning, as well as a reduction in depressive symptoms and stress. Following brain imaging, it was shown there was increased brain blood flow to areas targeted by cognitive training such as the frontal lobe networks. The SMART program provided its participants a set of strategies that can improve cognitive control, executive functions, daily functions, and enhance the psychological health of the individual. The SMART program further facilitates improved neural health as measured by increased brain blood flow in the areas critical for the cognitive skills addressed in the training.
Reasoning Training in Veteran and Civilian Traumatic Brain Injury with Persistent Mild Impairment (Fig. 3)

Figure 3 shows increases in brain blood flow in the (A) Frontal Gyrus, (B) Insula, and (C) Anterior Cingulate Cortex as a result of completing the gist reasoning training SMART.

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Sandi Chapman, Founder and Chief Director, Center for BrainHealth, Co-Leader, The BrainHealth Project, Dee Wyly Distinguished Professor

Sandra Bond Chapman, PhD

Chief Director Dee Wyly Distinguished Professor, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences Co-Leader, The BrainHealth Project

Headshot of Jeffrey S. Spence, PhD

Jeffrey S. Spence, PhD

Director of Biostatistics

Daniel Krawczyk, Deputy Director, Center for BrainHealth, Debbie and Jim Francis Chair in Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Daniel Krawczyk, PhD

Deputy Director of Research Debbie and Jim Francis Chair and Professor, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Related Programs

SMART™ brain training is the proprietary methodology developed and tested by Center for BrainHealth researchers and other teams over three decades. It teaches techniques that prime the brain, calibrate mental energy, reinforce strategic thinking and ignite innovation. This methodology provides the building blocks of our brain training programs for individual and group needs.

Published SMART Evidence

A Progression in Breadth and Depth
Multiple trials funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Defense (DOD), and private philanthropy, have demonstrated that SMART can promote gains in core cognitive areas and strengthen several of the brain’s key networks – functions that support planning, reasoning, decision making, judgment and emotional regulation across populations.
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SMART Brain Training

Take a scientific approach to leadership development. Our brains are adaptable and trainable, driven by how we engage every day. In the same way that we can improve our bodies through physical fitness, we can increase our focus, creativity and mental efficiency with targeted strategies and healthy brain habits.
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Cognitive Gains From Gist Reasoning Training in Adolescents With Chronic-Stage Traumatic Brain Injury

This randomized controlled trial (RCT) shows how months or even years after traumatic brain injury, SMART™ has the potential to help adolescents improve certain cognitive impairments once thought to be long-lasting.