Next iRest Session
–
MORE DATES AVAILABLE: SEE REGISTRATION PAGE. Integrative Restoration (iRest®) is a research-based, trauma-informed guided meditation. The practice can work to reduce stress and build resilience for meeting life’s persistent challenges. There is nothing to “do.” Just get comfortable and listen. Invite a sense of wholeness, the feeling of being rested and restored. iRest sessions at Center for BrainHealth are led by certified teachers through the Warrior Spirit Project.
The Resilience Gap: How to Strengthen the Teen Brain in a Tech-Obsessed World
–
BrainHealth Presents kicks off the 2026 season with a talk about what is going on inside the brain during the teen years. Recently featured on 60 Minutes, Eva Telzer, PhD, and Mitch Prinstein, PhD, research this key time for brain development – and the external forces helping shape it, for better or worse. Experts in this emerging field of study, they are co-directors of one of the Winston Center on Technology and Brain Development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the only centers dedicated to studying the impact of social media on the developing mind and brain. Guests can also view the Journey exhibition. This event is for ages 21+. Sponsored by Tammy and Tim Hughes.
Advancing the Science and Engineering of Intelligence: From Network Neuroscience to Interventions for Precision Health
–
Don't miss the opening talk for the fall 2026 season of Frontiers of BrainHealth, our popular neuroscience lecture series, featuring cognitive neuroscientist Aron Barbey, PhD, director of the Notre Dame Human Neuroimaging Center, as he shares recent discoveries in network neuroscience that suggest intelligence emerges from a rich constellation of networks whose functions are orchestrated in a flexible, goal-directed manner.
The Art of Connection: Creativity, Mental Wellness and Brain Health
–
Grant Halliburton Foundation Young Professionals and The Think Tank, Center for BrainHealth’s young professionals group, are partnering to present a private viewing of the Journey exhibition, a celebration of the foundation's 20th anniversary. An evening for guests in their 20s, 30s and 40s, the event features networking and a panel including artists and mental health and brain health experts exploring the connections among creativity, mental wellness, and brain health. Tickets are $25 per person.
Of Birds and Brain: Computerized Cognitive Training and Brain Plasticity for Alzheimer's Prevention
–
UT Dallas researcher Chandramallika Basak, PhD, director of the Lifespan Neuroscience and Cognition (LiNC) Lab at the Center for Vital Longevity, shares insights into leading-edge controlled randomized trials (CRTs) conducted by her lab, focused on improving cognition in older adults. These studies identify moderators and mediators of cognitive training in both healthy aging and pre-clinical Alzheimer's disease (AD), as well as the game features of efficacious videogame training – insights that can guide design of best cognitive training for healthy aging and preclinical AD/early AD.
Brain Injury and Risk of Dementia
–
Millions of people experience concussions and other forms of brain injury each year and the impact on cognitive health can last a lifetime. UTSW Medical Center research leader Munro Cullum, PhD, shares emerging research on the connections between concussion, repetitive head trauma and the risk of developing dementia later in life, exploring diagnosis, prognosis, and long-term outcomes following brain injury, including concussion, repetitive head hits, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
AI and the Copernican Revolution in Intelligence
–
If intelligence can increasingly be modeled, measured, and replicated, what remains distinctive about human beings? SMU Perkins School of Theology professor Robert Hunt, PhD, argues that the age of AI represents a “Copernican revolution” in our understanding of intelligence. Just as Copernicus removed humanity from the physical center of the universe, AI is removing humans from the intellectual center of the world they inhabit.
Mindset: Why What You Believe Matters More Than You Think
–
In this compelling talk, moderated by KERA's Krys Boyd, Alia Crum, PhD, explains how mindsets — the beliefs and expectations we hold — actively shape our physical health, emotional well-being and ability to build a healthy relationship with stress. Recently featured on The Mel Robbins Podcast, the Stanford psychologist leads groundbreaking research focused on understanding how mindsets affect important outcomes outside the realm of medicine, in the domains of behavioral health and organizational behavior to show how perceptions of stress, willpower and the body can alter biological responses and real-world outcomes. This event is for ages 21+. Sponsored by The Encompass Group.
Brainspan: How The BrainHealth Project Can Inform Dementia Prevention
–
Dementia is one of the main culprits undermining what should be our most rewarding years. Most current dementia-prevention trials are labor-intensive and hence expensive and difficult to scale to the hundreds of millions who need it. Internationally recognized cognitive neuroscientist Ian Robertson, PhD, shares an inside look at The BrainHealth Project, and how the longitudinal study is measuring and targeting improvements in the brain health of 100,000 people over ten years using a telehealth, web-based interface and real-time remote coaching.
Modeling Maternal Adversity in Rodents to Study Intergenerational Effects
–
Millie Rincón-Cortés, PhD, leads the Developmental and Maternal Neurobiology Lab at UT Dallas, a developmental behavioral neuroscience lab that studies how exposure to adversity compromises behavioral and brain function throughout the lifespan. Her research reveals how maternal adversity in rats (modelled through resource scarcity) disrupts the brain's reward circuitry, causing reduced maternal motivation and diminished responsiveness to pups. These behavioral changes correspond with disruptions in the brain's reward circuitry (also known as the mesolimbic dopamine system). Her team has further demonstrated that early life adversity affects reward-related behaviors during adolescence.
Healthy Friction: The Science of Productive Disagreement
–
Psychologist Eli Finkel, PhD, dissects how polarization and misperception derail productive dialogue, offering practical strategies for engaging across differences — and tools for transforming conflict into insight and competitive advantage. Founding co-director of the Litowitz Center for Enlightened Disagreement, Dr. Finkel is the Morton O. Schapiro Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, where he leads the Relationships And Motivation Lab (RAMLAB), and also co-host of the popular podcast Love Factually. This event is for ages 21+. Sponsored by the Northwestern and Kellogg DFW Alumni Clubs.
How Blood Can Now Tell Us About Brain Health: Integration and Implementation of Blood Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease
–
Dr. Melissa Petersen's is assistant professor of Family Medicine and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine. Her research focuses on the utility of blood-based biomarkers in the detection of neurodegenerative disease states including Alzheimer's disease among different racial and ethnic groups. Her collaboration and work with the Health and Aging Brain Study- Health Disparities (HABS-HD) cohort allows access to a biologically well characterized sample of Non-Hispanic Whites, Black, and Hispanics ranging from age 30 and above with available MRI, PET (Amyloid, Tau), blood-based biomarkers and cognitive data.
Mission Restored: Novel Treatments for Veterans
–
A panel of distinguished veterans and brain scientists lead a candid, high-level conversation on approaches to neuroplasticity enhancement, addiction disruption, and emotional and psychological reset using psychedelic compounds, featuring former Texas Governor Rick Perry; renowned Center for BrainHealth neuroscientist Francesca Filbey, PhD; veteran and BrainHealth trainer Thad King; neuroscientist and neuroengineer Jamie Tyler, PhD; and clinical psychologist Charles Green, PhD. This event is for ages 21+. Sponsored by Livewire Technologies, Inc.
Understanding Risk, Improving Health: Leveraging Technology to Understand and Reduce Health-Risk Behaviors Across Adolescence and Young Adulthood
–
Adolescence and young adulthood are critical developmental periods during which health-risk behaviors can emerge and become established, with important implications for long-term health and well-being. UT Arlington professors Melissa A. Lewis, PhD, and Dana M. Litt, PhD, discuss advances in digital technology that are transforming how researchers identify the cognitive, social and contextual mechanisms underlying these behaviors and how interventions are developed and delivered to reduce risk.