SAN FRANCISCO — In a surprising shift, the Pentagon is reshaping its response to Havana Syndrome—the mysterious neurological condition first reported by U.S. diplomats in Cuba in 2016 and then by some additional 1,500 diplomatic and military personnel. While the unexplained headaches, vertigo, tinnitus, and fatigue were labeled for a decade as “Anomalous Health Incidents,” six months after Donald Trump’s comments on using a “discombobulator” weapon in Venezuela, the Pentagon renamed its Havana Syndrome task force to the “Directed Energy Bio-Effects Cross-Functional Team,” while also launching $3 million in compensation payouts. Now, new clinical research from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center published in Frontiers in Neurology reports that BrainHQ brain exercises significantly reversed a general measure of cognitive damage in a first study of cognitive rehabilitation for people with Havana Syndrome.
For the past 10 years, affected personnel faced skepticism regarding the legitimacy of their symptoms. The sudden pivot attributing causation to “directed energy bio-effects,” rather than “anomalous incidents” — coupled with the initial $3 million allocated for compensation — diminishes the doubts and some of the mystery associated with Havana Syndrome. The new Walter Reed study also offers some hope that the government has reached a critical turning point in how it views and treats the condition.
“I have the greatest respect for these researchers at Walter Reed, with whom I’ve worked over many years on addressing brain injuries and cognitive symptoms,” said Dr. Henry Mahncke a leading brain plasticity researcher and the CEO of Posit Science, which makes BrainHQ online brain exercises. “However, I was as surprised as anyone to learn this study had been done and published. It appears to be a very solid observational study, culled from patients they have worked with over many years.”
The researchers conducted a retrospective observational study, which looked at the records of 40 patients (21 female, 19 male) who had been treated for Havana Syndrome from 2020 to 2025 at the Brain Fitness Center of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence at Walter Reed. All patients were tested as part of their treatment on a standard computerized cognitive assessment battery (the ANAM4 MIL) both before and after brain training on BrainHQ and were asked to complete several self-report instruments. Patients were advised to use BrainHQ for 20 to 30 minutes a session, three to five times per week, for six weeks.
At baseline, the patients performed below normal on measures of processing speed, and while their objective cognitive efficiency scores were within normal limits, they were numerically below healthy norms. Patient self-report surveys found slightly elevated psychological symptoms, highly elevated neurobehavioral and headache symptoms, and severe impacts on life.
Patients used BrainHQ at-home and provided generally positive feedback regarding the program, with researchers reporting more than 75% said their participation helped in areas of memory, visuo-spatial skills, and attention.
In the key finding, looking at the objective cognitive measures, the researchers reported there was a significant improvement on the ANAM composite scores over time, noting that “the direction of change reflects a positive clinical trajectory.”
The researchers also noted the paucity of studies in this area, finding no other literature describing specific cognitive rehabilitation interventions for this patient group, and just one somewhat-related study focused on vestibular training.
BrainHQ has increasingly been used and measured across the military, producing ten prior papers demonstrating gains in cognitive and psychological measures, reduced symptoms from a variety of brain injuries, and increased cognitive resilience among warfighters.
“Up until recently, many viewed Havana Syndrome with skepticism and as a condition that exists primarily in SciFi fantasies,” Dr. Mahncke observed. “With non-kinetic weapons barely emerging from the shadows, it’s inspiring that the Pentagon had this research team dig through their data to explore effective methods of treatment. Clearly, more research into building cognitive resilience and recovery needs to be a top readiness priority for our 21st century military.”
BrainHQ has shown benefits across more than 300 studies. Such benefits include gains in cognition (attention, speed, memory, decision-making), in quality of life (depressive symptoms, confidence and control, health-related quality of life) and in real-world activities (health outcomes, balance, driving, workplace activities). BrainHQ is used by leading health plans, medical centers, clinics, and communities, and by elite athletes, the military, first responders, and other organizations focused on peak performance and resilience. Consumers can try a BrainHQ exercise for free daily at brainhq.com.