Flexible Brain Training- Can we train more flexible information processing and is it helpful?
Fatigue can be a very difficult and debilitating symptom to live with. It can have a big impact on day to day life, including how we engage with the world. To manage fatigue, some people develop certain ways of processing information. For example, skim reading or predicting future energy levels. These are types of mental ‘short-cuts’ our brain makes. These ways of processing can be helpful, such as in helping to manage everyday tasks and planning to do activities when most able.
However, by continually using these ‘short-cuts’ our brain gets used to following the same path and the ‘short-cuts’ can become automatic. So, rather than apply different ways of processing information, taking different paths- our brains become reliant on the same one. This can be unhelpful, for example when the situation changes, or an unexpected event occurs.
This research, led by Alicia Hughes, is designed to assess whether we can (1) change how the brain deals with or processes information and (2) whether training the brain in more flexible processing is helpful for people with fatigue.