is it just a realllly realllllly slow process of training the brain to accept all the stimuli of reading, people talking in groups, bright lights, etc.

I do notice some symptoms have really improved like flourescent lights and the sun. I'm not so bothered by sounds either...like the dog barking or I can even remember the spoon hitting the bowl for cereal when the kids ate would really bother me in the beginning.

so...is it just a matter of training the brain to accept it?

I think some sounds get retrained so the brain is not so reactive. The brain can still overload and react to the more problematic sounds, restaurant, loud group of people, etc. My tolerance has improved but I still need to be ready to put my ear plugs in. I am still subject to visual over-stimulation. Bright lights do not cause problems. They just make it harder to focus on a task.

I find it is important to be ready to recognize the over-stimulation. I just need to be cognizant of when I am starting to struggle with the stimuli. My wife can recognize me straining to focus. She will often ask if I need my ear plugs or it we need to leave the over-stimulating environment. She sees it on my face and recognizes it before I do.

Here's my understanding:

Our brains have developed solid neural pathways over the years for things that we experience or do a lot.

Anything that we do repeatedly or experience repeatedly becomes familiar and somewhat automatic. For example, I don't have to consciously think about which letter my finger is hitting when I type because I have a lot of muscle memory and automaticity associated with it. When I was first learning to type, however, I had to be very conscious of it and even say the letters aloud to myself or in my head.

A concussion disrupts those connections (some things I have read make me think it actually tears the axons that connect the neurons), and it takes time to reconstruct them. As long as they are not disrupted again, the brain does have a lot of neuroplasticity, meaning that it can change and adapt to new circumstances over time.

So, yes, you could have previously had an automatic ability to filter the kids' spoons in the cereal bowl which was then disrupted by the concussion and now is beginning to become more automatic again.

As I understand it, the key is to load the brain just a tiny bit more than it can handle in order to help it grow without doing damage. Kind of like muscle building. You don't immediately go for the 500-pound weight -- you need to gradually work up to that.

Hope somebody will chime in if I have my facts wrong. This is what I understand from the brain-based learning stuff I've seen as a teacher.