Our rapidly changing environment is profoundly altering our brains and minds.
What does it mean for the future of society? How can we manage the risks?
We explore and track the evolving brain and mind of humanity
Our rapidly evolving socio-technological and physical environment are resulting in both a decline in our mental wellbeing and an increasing divergence in our brain physiology. We are here to track and understand these trends and accelerate the path from data to insights to real-world action as a path to our mission to understand and enable the human mind.
Mental Wellbeing
We track evolving mental wellbeing across the globe through the Mental Health Million project, identify key socio-cultural factors that can lead to strategies to preventatively address the generational decline, and enable Organizations, Schools and Universities to measure and manage mental wellbeing through preventative strategies and appropriate resource allocation.
Centers for Human Brain and Mind
Our recently launched Centers for Human Brain and Mind bring together cross-disciplinary perspectives coupled with an unparalleled multi-dimensional human data acquisition infrastructure for global insights into how our socio-cultural, technological, nutrient and toxin environments impact our brain physiology and in turn our mental outcomes. Our first Centers are presently at Krea University in India and NM-AIST in Tanzania.
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
We take a cross disciplinary approach to understanding the influence of environment on brain and the relationship between brain and mental outcomes. Our research spans development of new tools for measurement, new approaches to signal processing and large-scale data acquisition and analytics.
Across the global English speaking population overall mental wellbeing declined 24 points in 2020 relative to 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The percentage of the population with clinical level mental health risks rose from 14% to 26%.
Read more in the Mental State of the World 2020
It used to be that younger people and older people fared better with a dip in middle age – known as the U-shaped curve of happiness. No longer. Younger generations have increasingly worse mental wellbeing overall and mood and outlook. 44% of those 18-24 have clinical level risks and challenges compared to only 6% of those 65+. This generational decline, already present in 2019 was exacerbated by the pandemic.
Read more in the Mental State of the World 2020
The brain ‘consumes’ stimulus that informs its wiring, development and behavior. Major things like education, transport and cell phones expand the scope and pace of stimulus the brain receives.
Complexity of the brain signal measured by EEG, or electrodes on the scalp, increases with aggregate consumption of these stimulus expanding factors. Complexity reflects the diversity of waveform patterns in the signal and may have significant cognitive consequences.
Read more in Nature Scientific Reports
There are many disparities in the brain signal between those with access and means to consume greater stimulus and those without. This shows the distribution of a feature of the brain signal called the Alpha oscillation between two extremes – those who are rural, less than primary educated and with no technology compared to those college-educated and digitally enabled.
The Alpha oscillation is thought to have a role in attention and mental imagery.
Read more in Nature Scientific Reports
Lab Talk
Part journal club, part musing, we blog here about interesting and open questions in human neuroscience as well as new tools and approaches to research.
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EEG Approaches to Measuring Depth of Anesthesia
What are the common approaches to measuring depth of anesthesia in clinical application and how do...
Bayesian Model Selection For DCM Using EEG
How do you compare and select the best Bayesian model in Dynamic Causal Modeling or DCM of EEG...
Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM): DCM – Neural Mass Models and Bayesian Inference
This post discusses the core components of neural mass models and Bayesian inference in DCM applied...
Glia As Key Players in Network Activity and Plasticity
After decades of being ignored, the important role of glia in shaping network activity and behavior...
Dynamic Causal Modeling and the Application of Bayes Theorem
Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) takes a probabilistic Bayesian framework to infer effective or causal...
Perspectives on the Future of EEG from EEG2021
Where is the future of EEG? The EEG 2021 Symposium held last week discussed various aspects of the...
A Primer on Bayes Theorem (for Neuroimaging)
A Bayesian framework, one that works with conditional probabilities, has numerous applications in...
Drifting Neuronal Representations of Function
Neurons do not stably participate in the representation of tasks and behaviors. Called...
What Can Your Blood Tell You About Your Brain?
The blood may hold many clues to damage and degeneration in the brain. New findings bring a blood...
EEG Signal Quality in Wet Versus Dry Electrodes
Dry electrodes have some clear advantages but how does their signal quality compare to wet...
Wet and Dry Electrodes for EEG
EEG recording technology remains similar in principle since its first use in 1923. However, a...
Astrocytes Mediate Brain Lymphatic Function
The lymphatic system plays a key role in waste removal and immune function. Until 2012 it was...
Mentalog
Mentalog is our blog on mental wellbeing. How to interpret your own, understand it in a population context and how to measure and manage it within organizations.
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Gender Gaps in Mental Wellbeing
Nonbinary adults face challenges to mental wellbeing, research shows. The American Psychiatric...
Is Mental Health Behind the Outsized Level of Firearm Deaths in the United States? The Data Says Not.
Our recent presented findings from our survey on mental wellbeing and firearm deaths due to...
MHQ as a Measurement of Function
Our mental health doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Anyone who has snapped at an unsuspecting family...
Characterizing the Decline in Mental Wellbeing of Younger Generations
The symptoms of decline suggest not just changes in Mood & Outlook but a fundamental breakdown...
Building a mentally healthy and resilient organization in 2022
As we start the new year, many of us are making resolutions around losing weight, getting stronger,...
DSM Criteria for Mental Health Disorders Are No Better than Random
The DSM has defined psychiatry for 60 years. Yet its symptom based criteria for defining...
The Public Don’t Think Science Can Solve Mental Health Challenges
The Wellcome Global Monitor Report for 2020 highlights the perceived importance of mental health...
The Continuum of Mental Health Distress in the Global Population
The level of mental health distress in the global population is a continuum both in number of...
How to Support Employee Wellbeing in the Long Term
A person’s mental wellbeing is always subject to change; simply look at this past year for...
Trauma and Adversity in the General Population
Across the population, the more traumas one experiences, the greater the challenge to mental...
Why Employees Don’t Seek Mental Health Support – and What HR Managers Can Do About It
When workers are struggling to manage their mental health, they often do not ask for help from...
