What If A Game Could Help Your Brain Manage Fatigue?

Fatigue is the most common symptom of Multiple Sclerosis. Between 75 and 90 percent of people living with MS experience it — not ordinary tiredness, but a neurological exhaustion that interferes with thinking, working, and getting through the day. I know this because I live with MS. My first major attack happened in high school. Within days, most of my body was paralyzed. After months of intensive therapy, movement returned, but fatigue became a constant companion.
That experience is what led me to ask a simple question: what if a game, driven by your own brainwaves, could help your brain learn to manage fatigue?
As an MFA candidate in Interactive Design and Game Development at SCAD, I've spent the past year building toward an answer. My thesis project is a neuroadaptive gaming system that uses EEG — a brain-computer interface that reads electrical activity in real time — to create a personalized therapeutic experience. You wear a wireless headset at home, guide a glowing orb through a cosmic environment, and the game responds to your brain state as you play. When you're focused, the world comes alive. When fatigue builds, the system softens, eases the challenge, and gives you space to recover. You're never punished for struggling.
The idea is grounded in neuroscience. Through repeated short sessions, the brain can learn to recognize and shift the neural patterns associated with fatigue — a process called neuroplasticity. The system adapts in real time across multiple difficulty levels, including a protective mode that activates when fatigue is high.
To validate the direction, I surveyed 146 people with MS with support from the National MS Society. Eighty-nine percent said current fatigue tools aren't very effective. Ninety-seven percent said they'd try a therapeutic game. They wanted short sessions, calming visuals, and something easy to use. Those findings became the design blueprint.
Pre-clinical testing across synthetic EEG profiles has shown that the system produces distinct therapeutic responses depending on the user's fatigue level — adapting to who you are, not treating everyone the same.
There's still a long road ahead — IRB approval, pilot studies with real patients, and clinical partnerships. But the foundation is built, and the vision is clear: accessible, home-based tools that help people manage fatigue every day.
Because sometimes the most powerful thing technology can do is simply care about where you are right now.
— Ned Shoaei, MFA Candidate, Interactive Design and Game Development, SCAD (edited)