Announced in this Comment and in collaboration with Nature Medicine is the convening of the Brain Health for Economic Resilience Commission, a global, transdisciplinary effort to define, measure and operationalize brain health and cognitive capacity as foundational drivers of economic resilience. Brain health disorders — including mental health conditions, Alzheimer’s disease and related diseases, stroke, and traumatic brain injury — rank among the world’s leading causes of disability and morbidity.
In addition to the harm caused to individuals, these conditions impose substantial burdens on healthcare systems, reduce workforce participation, and diminish quality of life across all age groups. Collectively, they lead to worldwide loss of economic productivity.
As populations age and work becomes increasingly cognitive in nature, these conditions pose growing threats to both public health and economic stability. Brain capital, which integrates brain health and brain skills such as cognitive resilience, adaptability, creativity and social cooperation, is largely unmeasured and unmanaged.
In a future, potentially artificial intelligence-driven world, that gap represents a critical risk — one that could deepen inequalities and undermine economic resilience.
Nature Medicine published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 10 Jun 2026.
The item focuses on Brain Health for Economic Resilience: a data-driven framework for the brain-positive economic transition.
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