Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) may help reduce mental fatigue after a stroke or traumatic brain injury (TBI). In a study of 29 participants—18 with stroke and 11 with TBI—those who completed an 8-week MBSR program showed significant improvements on a self-assessment scale for mental fatigue and on two neuropsychological tests (Digit Symbol-Coding and Trail Making Test) compared with a control group that received no active treatment. The results suggest MBSR is a promising non-pharmacological treatment for mental fatigue, which currently has no effective therapy and severely limits work and social participation.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with high-density electroencephalography (TMS-hdEEG) offers advantages over other brain imaging techniques for assessing consciousness. A key requirement for consciousness is the brain's capacity to rapidly integrate information across specialized cortical areas. TMS-EEG stimulates any cortical area and records immediate electrical responses, successfully measuring changes in brain complexity under physiological, pharmacological, and pathological conditions. This technique reliably discriminates between conscious and unconscious patients at the single subject level, though further validation as a clinical tool is needed.