“ These findings suggest that cognitive rehabilitation techniques should focus on improving processing speed for people living with a chronic acquired brain injury to improve their memory ability and quality of life .”
For People with Memory Struggles After Brain Injuries , the Brain ’ s Processing Speed is the Main Culprit
“ These findings suggest that cognitive rehabilitation techniques should focus on improving processing speed for people living with a chronic acquired brain injury to improve their memory ability and quality of life .”
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If you try to save a file while your laptop lags , it won ’ t save . Similarly , when our brains have delayed processing speeds , they “ lag ” and impair our ability to receive information and store memory . Researchers find that for people with acquired brain injuries ( ABI ), slower processing speeds — slower rates of absorbing information — make it much more difficult to create and recall memories .
“ Ultimately , this study explored the cognitive disruption that causes poor memory recall in people with a chronic brain injury ,” says Gerald Voelbel , senior author of the study and associate professor of occupational therapy at NYU Steinhardt .
Research shows that more than 50 percent of people with an ABI ( a brain injury that is not present at birth nor caused by disease ) report memory deficits . With processing speed being responsible for the brain ’ s input of information and working memory being responsible for data storage , the researchers sought to determine the impact of each process on immediate and delayed memory recall .
For their study , published in Brain Injury , the researchers tasked 63 individuals with ABI ( ages 18-70 ) with a series of tasks called CNS Vital Signs that test performance on measures of processing speed , working memory , visual memory , and verbal memory .
One such test requires participants to memorize 15 words on a monitor and recall them from a list of original words combined with distractor words . They were asked to repeat this task 30 minutes later . Another task required the same activity but with colored figures instead of words .
The researchers found processing speed , but not working memory , to be a significant predictor of delayed verbal recall and overall memory .
“ These findings suggest that cognitive rehabilitation techniques should focus on improving processing speed for people living with a chronic acquired brain injury to improve their memory ability and quality of life ,” Voelbel says . g