Therapeutic Benefits of Pareidolia in Acute Traumatic Brain Injury Patients

This study will investigate whether viewing and identifying meaningful shapes or images hidden within nature pictures (pareidolia) can improve motivation and engagement in rehabilitation therapy for adults with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI). Participants will be randomly assigned to either a pareidolia-based activity group or a control group and will complete therapy sessions and assessments over approximately three weeks. The findings may help identify a simple, low-risk approach to enhancing rehabilitation participation after TBI

Inclusion Criteria: Diagnosis of mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) based on hospital chart review. Age 18 to 80 years. Premorbidly fluent in English. Education level greater than 8th grade. Corrected visual acuity of at least 20/40. \- Exclusion Criteria: Other neurological disorders affecting cognition or language, active substance use, epilepsy, history of psychosis or schizophrenia, hemianopia, severe spatial neglect, isolation precautions, severe visual impairment.