Personal Injury Solicitors

The findings of a new study suggest that the most effective learning strategy for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) may be retrieval practice, whereby patients are presented with information and repeat it to themselves intermittently.

Patients with brain injury – including less severe brain injury such as mild, moderate or severe concussion – may suffer short-term or chronic memory problems, making recall of short-term events or the distant past difficult.

Re-learning memories using different brain training techniques can help TBI patients improve recall.

Researchers at the Kessler Foundation investigated various learning strategies using a small sample of TBI patients to evaluate which strategy was the most effective. The 10 patients in the study group had suffered severe TBI with memory impairment.

The volunteers were asked to retrieve information using retrieval practice/RP (when information is recalled shortly after reading it or being presented with it), massed restudy/MR (a cramming technique in which information is repeated over a period of time), and spaced restudy/SR (also known as distributed learning, when individuals restudy the information at intervals).

In the case of retrieval practice, the study group was tested after 30 minutes of having been presented with the information and again one week later.

The findings of the study reveal that RP is more effective than MR or SR – and is more effective for recalling memories after a short delay, say the researchers. Moreover, out of the three learning strategies, RP is the only technique which is successful for memory recall after a long delay – suggesting that RP could help patients with severe TBI symptoms, including memory loss, to improve their recall in daily situations.

One of the co-authors of the study, Dr James Sumowski, said:

“If these individuals learn to incorporate this compensatory strategy into their daily routines, they can improve their memory.

“For example, rather than re-reading an article several times, it would be more effective if they quizzed themselves periodically – for example, after each paragraph or page.”

The researchers say that further randomised controlled studies of RP training would be needed to confirm the results of the study – including using a larger study group consisting of TBI patients with severe memory impairment.

Vice President of Research and Training at the Kessler Foundation – and co-author of the study – Dr John DeLuca said:

“Most people with and without TBI favour MR for learning and memory. We will need to educate individuals with TBI about the benefits of RP.”

The RP study is also co-authored by Dr Julia Coyne and Amanda Cohen.

The findings are published in the February issue of the journal Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.

Duncan Lewis Personal Injury Solicitors

Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of personal injury solicitors and can advise on making a no win no fee compensation claim for head injury and brain injury – including traumatic brain injury – sustained as a result of someone else’s negligence.

Accident or illness claims involving brain injury include:

• Accidents at work
• Birth injuries
• Children’s accidents
• Holiday accidents
• Industrial accidents
• Medical negligence
• Road traffic accidents
• School accidents
• Sports accidents.

For expert legal advice on making a no win no fee claim for brain injury or traumatic brain injury, contact Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors on 020 7923 4020.