ABSTRACT
Slowness of information processing or reduced processing speed is one of the foremost symptoms after acquired brain damage. Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), for example, show reduced speed of information processing across the spectrum of injury severity (Felmingham et al., 2004; Mathias and Wheaton, 2007; Willmott et al., 2009). Not only does slow information processing hamper several cognitive processes like attention, memory and executive function, it also has a major impact on the life of patients. Everyday tasks like driving a car, sustaining a conversation or watching television can feel overwhelming. Being no longer able to mentally keep up with the cognitive demands of daily life tasks may in turn lead to fatigue, depressive mood, irritability and exhaustion. The problem of slow information processing is likely to be exacerbated by new developments in modern society. Today's pace of life requires rapid processing of multiple sources of information, not only in the economic system, where the swiftness of production, distribution and consumption of commodities has accelerated considerably in the last two decades, but also in the management of daily life requirements due to the use of new digitisation techniques and innovative communication processes.
