Study aims to understand how NeuroTracker helps brain injury survivors improve cognition

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects millions of people in many different ways. While mild injuries, also known as concussions, tend to receive a lot of media attention, moderate to severe injuries (msTBI) account for one fifth of injuries. These more intense injuries can leave individuals with long-lasting, debilitating symptoms like migraines, memory impairment, and extreme fatigue. Living with msTBI can also negatively impact other aspects of life, resulting in intersecting challenges like unemployment, homelessness, substance use, and mental health struggles.

Accessible and effective interventions for reducing symptoms in msTBI survivors are lacking, but master’s student Jamie Morrison (pictured; Christie Lab) is studying one solution already helping people at the Victoria Brain Injury Society (VBIS). Using her recent Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s (CGS-M) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Jamie aims to understand why cognition improves in brain injury survivors who use a tool called NeuroTracker.

NeuroTracker is a video game in which participants visually track multiple moving 3D objects on a screen. “Just as it is important to exercise your body, it is also important to exercise your brain,” Jamie says. “This tool does that by repetitively using your memory, attention, and vision to strengthen connections in your brain.”

Pilot data from a 2021 patient-oriented research by PhD candidate Taylor Snowden-Richardson (Christie lab) suggested that using NeuroTracker could improve a brain injury survivor’s performance on neuropsychological tests of working memory and attention, along with reducing symptoms. This is the research that inspired the VBIS to launch its free NeuroTracker program in September 2022. So far, Jamie says 86 brain injury survivors have enrolled in the VBIS program and have completed more than 1,000 cognitive training sessions.

In her CGS-M project, Jamie will investigate potential biological changes that could be the underlying reason for the improvements seen in NeuroTracker users. She plans to recruit 30 participants to undergo two sessions of cognitive training per week for five weeks (a total of 10 sessions). She will then measure the participants’ functional, biological, and cognitive outcomes immediately after and one month following the program so she can compare those to baseline measurements taken at the start of the study.

“We hope to gain a deeper understanding of recovery tools available to msTBI survivors and whether they can minimize the negative biological effects of TBI,” Jamie says. “If successful, this research has the potential to bridge existing therapeutic gaps, offering more recovery options for those navigating the complexities of msTBI.”

CGS-M awards are administered jointly by Canada’s three granting agencies: CIHR, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. These awards are highly competitive and are designed to support research excellence, innovation, and impact in the health field.

Jamie also received a Mitacs Accelerate award for this project in November 2023. This funding allows her to continue working with VBIS as her community partner.