FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dallas, TX -- Center for BrainHealth has formed a groundbreaking collaborative research initiative – the BrainHealth Network – connecting researchers across the country to understand brain health improvement through advanced MRI imaging and data analysis from one of the most comprehensive multimodal brain imaging datasets ever assembled. The Network leverages The BrainHealth Project , a longitudinal study launched in 2020 that will collect the world’s largest brain health data set from 100,000 healthy participants over 10 years, including a large cohort undergoing semiannual functional brain imaging.
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“While traditional clinical studies focus on detecting deficits, this data set is distinctive in its focus on measuring and optimizing the brain in a healthy state,” said Sandra Bond Chapman, PhD, founder and chief director of Center for BrainHealth and co-leader of The BrainHealth Project. “Thanks to the vast scale and longitudinal design of The BrainHealth Project, its sensitive measure of brain gain or loss, intervention-based approach, and the integration of diverse data types, Network researchers can move beyond correlation to identify causal relationships in brain health.”
A Comprehensive Data Set
The imaging data, gathered from approximately 1,200 MRI scans and rapidly growing, includes structural, functional, vascular and white matter tract imaging. The data assesses both neural (e.g., brain activity, connectivity) and vascular (e.g., blood flow, oxygenation) health, offering a holistic view of brain function.The BrainHealth Network also leverages data from the BrainHealth Index , a metric designed to track brain health over time. The Index offers a composite score with a unique focus on the brain’s lifelong ability to improve, built with a proprietary algorithm from 22 established assessments. Enhanced by imaging and physiological data, this scientifically informed approach highlights the contributing factors of brain health. Paired with predictive modeling capabilities, the Index offers a remarkable opportunity to create personalized interventions.Unlike other large data sets that are typically just observational, The BrainHealth Project also collects data to measure effectiveness of cognitive training interventions, allowing researchers to explore causal insights regarding changes in brain health.
“To my knowledge, no single study has comprehensively measured all of these imaging metrics at once in a single cohort,” said Mark D’Esposito, MD, co-leader of The BrainHealth Project and distinguished professor at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley. “Even the largest NIH-funded projects usually include only a subset of these metrics rather than capturing the full range in a single data set.”
A Unique Approach to Sharing
The Network’s infrastructure enables multi-institutional collaboration, with each member specializing in different imaging techniques and exploring diverse questions. A centralized database supports continuous data integration, as well as a systemic way to share. Collaboration is ongoing and reciprocal — labs can explore their own research questions using the shared dataset.Data collection is streamlined through BrainForge, a cloud-native platform that automates imaging processing and supports scalable, real-time data integration. Collaborating labs use shared data to conduct independent research, fostering reciprocal innovation and transparency.
“The BrainHealth Network was designed with deep, bi-directional sharing as its goal, and this is supported by the data and processing infrastructure. There are not many precedents for this level of collaboration in science, but this is what it will take to achieve precision health for the most complex structure in the universe – the brain,” added Dr. D’Esposito.
Initial work has already brought about new tools – such as novel imaging and cognitive metrics – that will benefit all the Network members.
Pioneering Researchers Join the Effort
This initiative is powered by a cross-disciplinary approach that ensures continuous improvement, rapid integration of new discoveries and shared commitment to advancing the science of brain health. The Network involves multiple labs across universities and other organizations, each analyzing a unique aspect of the data:
The Network members held their first meeting during BrainHealth Week in February to share progress and preliminary findings, with multiple research publications expected in coming months.
Future Vision
Leveraging an expanding brain health data set, the BrainHealth Network is accelerating data analysis and promoting discoveries to benefit society, human health, transparency, reproducibility and innovation. Its ultimate goal is to create predictive models that can inform personalized interventions and make brain health tracking as accessible and routine as monitoring nutrition, heart rate or sleep.For more information and to join the BrainHealth Network, visit https://centerforbrainhealth.org/science/brainhealth-network
About Center for BrainHealth
Center for BrainHealth® , part of The University of Texas at Dallas, is a nonprofit translational research institute committed to enhancing, preserving and restoring brain health across the lifespan. Major research areas include the use of functional and structural neuroimaging techniques to better understand the neurobiology supporting cognition and emotion in health and disease. This leading-edge scientific exploration is translated quickly into practical innovations to improve how people think, work and live, empowering people of all ages to unlock their potential through optimal brain performance. Translational innovations leverage 1) the BrainHealth Index , a proprietary measure that uniquely charts one’s upward (or downward) holistic brain health trajectory; and 2) Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Tactics ( SMART™ ), a strategy-based methodology developed and tested by BrainHealth researchers and other teams over three decades.
Randomized controlled/clinical trial
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