Traumatic Brain Injury and Career Transition

Traumatic Brain Injury and Career Transition

Dr. Helen L. Horvath, PsyD

Over the past five years there has been a tremendous amount of information published pertaining to the relationship between head trauma, concussions, and general changes in mood, affect, and behavior.  Mild to moderate cognitive impairments have created an aging generation of professional athletes whose quality of life has become a significant factor in professional and psychological development outside of sports.  Many athletes are no longer able to work in their post-NFL career fields as a result of their symptoms.  The question becomes what can be done to negate and create learning as the neural pathways in the brain are reconnected after single or multiple traumatic brain injuries?  

Health Issues and the NFL Athlete:  Six Facts

FACT:  Every NFL athlete has the potential of having their "bell rung" and experiencing at least one mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) during his career in professional sports (Amen, Wu, Taylor, & Willeumier, 2011; Slobouniv, Zhang, Pennell, Johnson, & Sebastianelli, 2010; Smith, 2011; Wilson, 2012).

FACT:  TBI creates psychological changes in the brain of the athletes due to frontal lobe damage.  

FACT:  Athletes adapt to the damages in the brain in the areas of memory access (long and short term memory); cognitive functioning (ability to learn and retain information); and behavioral changes (such as increased impulse control or disinhibition).  The athlete's adaption to the damages in the brain may lead to the athlete's inability to retain information (Amen, Newberg, Thatcher, Jin, Wu, Keator, & Willeumier (2011).

   

FACT:  Psychological changes also occur as part of the TBI.  Athletes will potentially experience an increase in sexual drive, known as hypersexuality, which may lead to indiscriminate sexual behavior.  This is a function of impulse control and disinhibition.   Disinhibition is a disregard for social convention, poor risk assessment, and impulsivity.  

FACT:  Disinhibition directly affects and athlete's coordination or motor skills, instinctual behavior (i.e. hypersexuality), emotional, cognitive, and perceptions. 

FACT:  Long and short term memory require the learner to create a pattern of behavior that permits the linkage from the short term memory to long term memory.  Think of a highway that you have driven upon. When you first drive on the highway you pay attention to all the signs and conditions on the road.  Yet, as you drive on the highway repeatedly; you begin to learn to navigate without much thought to all the signs. Your long term memory is able to access the speed limits, signs to your destination, and about how long it will take to get there. This is an example of translating short term, long term, and back to short term memory.  Short term memory is where the information resides when learning and developing ideas.  Then the ideas and learning are stored back into long term memory.  For an individual with mild to moderate cognitive issues the individuals may not be able to remember the driving route on the highway without visual or auditory cues.  Accessing and retaining memory generally takes visual, auditory, reading and kinesthetic sensory experiences to translate short term memory into long term memory that is retained and available for access.

Solutions:  Virtual 3D and Learning

One may question what virtual 3D immersive technology has to do with learning?  When learning is viewed from a psychological perspective; there are several factors which must be negated to create learning and development.  These include:  Short and long term memory as mentioned previously; kinesthetic learning; and the actual training environment.

Kinesthetic Learning:  The process of how an athlete learns is as important as what the athlete learns (Kolb, 1984).  If a disabled athlete is unable to grasp information then learning will not take place.   As athletes adapt to the damages in the brain, a change in learning patterns create a need for a change in learning and facilitation patterns.  The symptoms an athlete may experience include paranoia, social phobias, memory and cognition issues, and behavioral issues.  By creating an intervention that utilizes a psychologically based solution supported by a five sensory experience known as kinesthetic learning; the possibility exists that short term and long term memory in the form of learning retention will happen (Brown & Standen, 2006; Wilson, Foreman, & Stanton, 1997).  

Virtual 3D immersive environment:  The use of virtual 3D immersive environments is increasing in the business market place.  Yet many environments do not include the psychological components of a disability in the development of the program.  The environments generally have a generic feel and do not represent specific parts of the world.  The belief is “an office is an office”.  Yet is it?

In order to decrease symptoms of head trauma and cognitive impairment the software developer must understand the psychological cues associated with TBI and other mental health disorders in order to create a simulation that will meet the psychological needs for learning and cognitive growth.  The key to this would be to develop an environment which is geared towards symptom resolution and individual change through group interaction.  Learning will take place once the individual symptoms are resolved within the simulation or 3D environment.  The simulations will allow the TBI survivor to practice social skills, develop emotional safety zones, and be observed by qualified staff to create a behavioral and cognitive change in the athlete. 

The use of virtual 3D immersive technology has roots in several areas of career development.  Are you ready for a change???