Photo by Kristin Ellis Sgt. 1st Class Jarrod Taylor, of Walter Reed’s Warrior Transition Brigade, works on a math game at the Brain Fitness Center Dec. 3.

‘‘My head really got rattled,” he said of the explosion. ‘‘I now have the degree but it’s frustrating not knowing if I have the recall to back it up.”

Speech language pathologist Katie Sullivan reassured him that despite the TBI, everything he learned is still there. ‘‘It’s like having a file cabinet knocked over,” she explained. ‘‘Nothing is lost but it just takes longer to find and organize that information.”

To help servicemembers like Seidel tap into that information, Walter Reed opened the Brain Fitness Center in the Military Advanced Training Center six months ago as a supplementary tool to the standard occupational and speech therapy. Servicemembers who have difficulty remembering things, trouble focusing, or paying attention can sit at one of the center’s computers and, for 20 minutes, go through a fun and entertaining program designed to stimulate the brain. One hundred and twenty four games with names like ‘‘Blankity Blank” and ‘‘Odd Couple” use techniques like paired association and visual memory to pinpoint different areas of the brain and exercise it. Over time, the program ‘‘gets to know” the user by identifying areas the individual needs to work on and tailoring each session by selecting games to maximize the benefit.

‘‘Every game is based on a standard, neurological exercise,” Sullivan said. ‘‘So although they appear as just fun games, they are actually based on scientifically sound tests.”

Like Seidel, Sgt. 1st Class Jarrod Taylor of Walter Reed’s Warrior Transition Brigade, has been using the Brain Fitness Center as one tool when working on his speech and memory difficulties when, earlier this year, a local car wreck left him in a coma for nearly a week.

‘‘Everyone likes to say I ate [interstate] 495,” he laughed. ‘‘I was in a really bad state. Crawl to walk. I had to learn everything all over again and how to socialize in the world.”

Taylor has been attending his ‘‘get smart class” twice a week for about seven weeks and, although doubtful when he first started, has noticed an improvement.

‘‘It keeps my mind alert and helps me function in the world,” he said. ‘‘It builds confidence; being able to get the words I want to say in the right order and out faster.”

‘‘I think they really enjoy the fact that they can work on it independently,” Katy Teixeira, research assistant, said. ‘‘It’s empowering to them. They can see that they are making the progress.”

The technology in the Brain Fitness Center, Sullivan explained, was originally designed for the normal, aging brain on the idea that the functioning of the brain can actually be changed by doing drills over and over again.

‘‘[The center] is a way to take advantage of the money and capital that has been invested in technology for the baby boomers and use it to help the injured servicemember population,” she said. ‘‘It’s fun, entertaining and engaging, but it also is serving a purpose and it’s structured enough so that we hope to one day see some real data and results from it.

‘‘We want to see if it’s effective,” she added. ‘‘The program is completely voluntary. If they’re coming back, it’s working.”

According to Teixeira, there have been a lot of referrals over the last couple months with 33 patient visits for the month of November and five new patients within the last week.

Sullivan said they are working on bringing in more programs and technology to give the patients more variety as they reach their goals.

‘‘I want to be able to hold a conversation without anyone knowing anything is wrong,” Seidel said.

‘‘Being able to say what you mean to say may sound small to some people, but it means a lot to me,” Taylor said. ‘‘I’m not trying to be a genius by using this program, but I want to be as smart as I can be.”