The Words That Shape Our Worlds
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UT Dallas Assistant Professor of Psychology Ryan Boyd, PhD, explores how everyday language — from tiny words like "the" and "me" to themes, narratives and expressions of self-belief — maps where attention is pointing. Highlighting recent studies, he shares how research into how communities adapt during turbulent periods and how shifts in language can foreshadow changes in well-being and mental health.
From Data to Diagnosis: Computational Psychiatry and Brain Imaging in the Age of AI
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Computational psychiatry is reshaping our understanding of mental illness by integrating data-driven modeling with neurobiological insights. At the heart of this transformation lies brain imaging, which enables noninvasive, in vivo exploration of the brain's structure and function. Increasingly, AI is amplifying these capabilities, enabling the discovery of patterns invisible to traditional analysis. After contextualizing the burden of mental illness and the urgent need for more precise diagnostic tools, this talk will examine the evolving role of brain imaging and AI in computational psychiatry, emphasizing their transformative promise, pitfalls, and path forward.
Art of BrainHealth
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Celebrate creativity and lifelong brain potential at our annual student art competition. This interactive event includes an artist reception, live presentations and real-time audience voting to select the People's Choice. This year's contest challenged student artists from UT Dallas and Dallas College to translate cognitive neuroscience into vivid expressions of their lived experiences.
Sleepless and Alone: The Impact of Sleep Loss on Human Social Behavior
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NEW DATE: Research from Dr. Eti Ben Simon suggests insufficient sleep may be an under-appreciated contributing factor. Even modest sleep loss can erode social connections, hamper altruistic behavior, and heighten subjective anxiety, revealing the transformative impact of insufficient sleep on healthy adults. Sleep is thus a critical and causal factor for sustaining emotional health, social connectedness, and broader societal well-being.
Neural Substrates Underlying Effortful Behavior in Animal Models
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UTD neuroscience professor Puja K. Parekh, PhD, highlights recent work into how the brain processes information to inform goal-directed actions, decision-making and task disengagement, combining behavioral measurements with in vivo neurophysiological recordings to identify circuit mechanisms of effortful motivation and the effects of stress. The goal of these studies is to identify mechanisms to enhance therapeutic development for stress-related disorders.
NextGen Day
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BrainHealth Week kicks off at the main campus of UT Dallas with the Brain Health Prize award celebration — a dynamic event showcasing the creativity, resilience and ingenuity of UTD students reimagining what brain health looks like on college campuses. The event includes a reception and information about the newly established Brain Healthy Campus Collaborative. All are welcome. Please register to attend.
Designing Workplaces
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Join us for "Designing for the Future: Brain Healthy Organizations" — focusing on human innovation and brain health in the workplace. This event features dynamic, interactive learning experiences with BrainHealth experts, Slalom’s HabLab specialists and other change makers, co-hosted by Slalom. Please register to attend.
Level Up Conference & Tech Expo
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Get ready for a conference of fast-paced TEDx-style talks delivered by internationally recognized scientists and experts. "Enriching Longevity Through Brain Health" shares actionable brain health takeaways. Held at Center for BrainHealth, the day also includes a Tech Expo of cutting-edge biosensor technology enabling people to track and monitor brain health. Buy your tickets now.
Science Summit
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Discover "Breakthroughs in Precision Brain Health" with this lunchtime event, held at Center for BrainHealth in partnership with UT Dallas' School of Brain and Behavioral Sciences. Featuring discussions with leading scientists, talks explore recent research breakthroughs, like news from The BrainHealth Project and the recently established BrainHealth Network, a national collaborative led by Mark D'Esposito, MD. Please register to attend.
Family Fair
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Bring the whole brood to our Family Fair – there's no better way to end BrainHealth Week! Children of all ages take a whirlwind journey into the human brain, enjoying brain-healthy games, food, arts & crafts, activities and surprises. This free community event is an annual favorite, offering short, interactive talks and unique family engagement activities. This year's focus is cognitive control, a superpower that helps us behave, think and learn in different environments. Please register to attend.
An Entorhinal Cortex Circuit in Cocaine Memories
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Drug-associated memories can be a major driver of relapse in addiction. UTD neuroscience professor Dr. Andrew Eagle focuses on researching how the brain encodes and retrieves drug-cue memories that promote maladaptive behavior. He presents preliminary findings demonstrating that the entorhinal cortex (EC) plays a critical role in this process and explores the broader research goal of defining the neural mechanisms by which memory shapes motivation in addiction.
MRI Biomarkers for Vascular Cognitive Impairment and Dementia
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Brain imaging provides an important opportunity for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment monitoring in vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID). In this talk, Dr. Hanzhang Lu discusses a potential framework of biomarkers for the classification of vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID), specifically describing cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR), an important physiological parameter of vascular health, as a candidate biomarker in small vessel disease related VCID.