Summary

After a brain injury, the brain may need more time to process information.

A person then needs more time to understand what is being said, to answer a question, or to respond to something.

It can feel as if the world is moving too fast. While someone is still thinking about a question, the other person has already moved on with the conversation.
Delayed information processing says nothing about a person's intelligence. Thinking and responding takes more time and often more energy as well.

This can lead to fatigue, frustration, and problems in daily life.

Tips for loved ones: Speak calmly, give one clear message at a time, and allow sufficient time to respond.

A striking, simplified comparison is that of a traffic jam on a country road. Before the brain injury, the brain connections functioned like highways where traffic flowed smoothly. After the brain injury, these highways turned into narrow country lanes, where delays and congestion occur.

Understanding figurative language

After brain injury a person may need more time to understand figurative language, humor, sarcasm or irony.

Ambiguous statements can also cause confusion.

Then it takes more time to understand what is really meant.

More detailed information

Brain damage may cause information to be processed more slowly. This can have major consequences for daily life.

Processing speed is the speed at which someone processes information. This includes, among other things:

• the time it takes for a person to perform a mental task
  
• the speed at which a person can understand the information
  
• the speed at which a person can respond to the information received
  
• the speed at which a person can retrieve something from memory

Having a conversation can become a major feat: listening, processing what is said, understanding the meaning, and then responding. Delays can occur at every step.
As a result, a joke, a serious undertone, or the message behind the words can also be harder to follow.
Many people with brain injury find that thinking takes more time, attention, and energy. The outside world sometimes seems like a movie played at accelerated speed.
When a lot is being said or done at the same time, a person can no longer keep up the pace. Reading or watching television can also take more time and energy and lead to severe fatigue.
The world moves too fast...

Due to the slowed pace, people with brain damage are extra sensitive to time pressure, and they may feel that they are running out of time.

Slowed information processing speed can affect 'executive functions'. These are the higher control functions of the brain, such as planning, organizing behavior, setting goals, making decisions and initiating tasks.
It can negatively affect other attention functions (e.g., when dividing attention) and memory (e.g., when storing information).
It can lead to a slow work pace and rapid mental fatigue.

This may cause problems with all sorts of seemingly simple everyday tasks and activities, such as work and study, cooking, social activities and in traffic.
It can also happen that it only goes wrong at a single point, for example when taking language literally, when a word has multiple meanings and you have to look up which word is meant (word concepts), or with arithmetic skills. After all, everything depends on the location of the damaged brain tissue.

This can also make it impossible to follow the subtitles on the television and watch a film at the same time. Let alone if there are also background noises or visual distractions, such as a flashing light.

One may still be thinking about what has just been said, while the speaker has already moved on to another topic.

Delayed information processing and overstimulation

Delayed information processing can contribute to cognitive overstimulation. When information arrives faster than a person can process it, the load may build up.

Sounds, light, movements, and other sensory stimuli can also make information processing difficult. Consequently, with sensory overload (sensory overstimulation), it can become even more difficult to follow conversations, maintain attention, and respond in a timely manner.

Delayed information processing and various forms of overstimulation can thus reinforce each other.

Tips for the environment

• Take into account a slower pace of thought. Give more time to understand information, respond, or retrieve something from memory.
• Realize that listening can often be more tiring than speaking. Therefore, keep conversations short if necessary.
• Speak in short, clear sentences. Avoid long sentences with subordinate clauses. These place an extra burden on working memory.
• Use and emphasize key words. This makes the message easier to follow.
• Be concrete. Avoid unnecessarily abstract concepts and clarify words that can have multiple meanings.
• Be careful with humor, sarcasm, irony, and ambiguity. Some people with brain injury take statements literally or need more time to understand the meaning.

• Pay attention to eye contact / facial expressions. Sometimes you can tell from someone's gaze or frowning that they are having trouble understanding information or are still thinking. If necessary, ask for a brief summary.
• Recognize signs of fatigue. For example, yawning, rubbing eyes, or looking away during a conversation.
• Help in company. Do you notice that someone is speaking too fast? Then ask her or him to adjust their speaking pace.
• Support your explanation with images where necessary. A picture can sometimes make things clearer than words.
• Take the person's capacity into account. Is she or he tired? Then it is better to postpone a complex conversation.
• Avoid time pressure. Allow sufficient time to respond and do not set unnecessary deadlines.
• Limit distracting stimuli. Think of background noise, movements, bright light, or other disturbing stimuli.

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