Brain health is essential for smooth economic transitions: towards socio-economic sustainability, productivity and well-being

Olivia Nail-Beatty; Agustin Ibanez; Rym Ayadi; Pawel Swieboda; Alfred K Njamnshi; Jo-An Occhipinti; William Hynes; Burcin Ikiz; Laura Castro-Aldrete; Kelly O'Brien; Michael L Platt; Shazia Adalat; Jafri Malin Abdullah; Rajinder K Dhamija; Zul Merali; Cyprian Mostert; Debbie Beck; Shekhar Saxena; Mohamed Salama; Omnia M Abdelraheem; Frederic Destrebecq; George M Slavich; Bello Shehu; Graham Fieggen; Paul M Ghogomu; Claudio L A Bassetti; Harris A Eyre

doi:10.1093/braincomms/fcae360

Brain health is essential for smooth economic transitions: towards socio-economic sustainability, productivity and well-being

Brain Commun. 2024 Oct 30;6(6):fcae360. doi: 10.1093/braincomms/fcae360. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Olivia Nail-Beatty¹, Agustin Ibanez^{2

3

4}, Rym Ayadi⁵, Pawel Swieboda^{3

4

5

6

7

8}, Alfred K Njamnshi^{9

10

11

12}, Jo-An Occhipinti¹³, William Hynes^{14

15

16}, Burcin Ikiz^{17

18

19

20}, Laura Castro-Aldrete²¹, Kelly O'Brien²², Michael L Platt²³, Shazia Adalat²⁴, Jafri Malin Abdullah^{25

26}, Rajinder K Dhamija²⁷, Zul Merali²⁸, Cyprian Mostert²⁸, Debbie Beck²⁹, Shekhar Saxena³⁰, Mohamed Salama³¹, Omnia M Abdelraheem¹⁹, Frederic Destrebecq³², George M Slavich³³, Bello Shehu³⁴, Graham Fieggen³⁵, Paul M Ghogomu¹⁰, Claudio L A Bassetti^{36

37}, Harris A Eyre^{1

3

4

38

39}

Affiliations

¹ Neuro-Policy Program, Center for Health and Bioscience, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, Houston, TX 77006, USA.
² BrainLat, University Adolfo Ibanez, Santiago 7941169, Chile.
³ Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), Dublin D02 PN40, Ireland.
⁴ Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association, Barcelona 08025, Spain.
⁵ NeuroCentury, Brussels 1060, Belgium.
⁶ International Centre for Future Generations, Brussels 1040, Belgium.
⁷ FIPRA, Brussels 1040, Belgium.
⁸ European Policy Centre, Brussels 1000, Belgium.
⁹ Brain Research Africa Initiative (BRAIN), Yaoundé 25625, Cameroon.
¹⁰ Neuroscience Lab, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Yaoundé, Cameroon.
¹¹ Department of Neurology, Central Hospital Yaoundé, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
¹² Brain Research Africa Initiative (BRAIN), Geneva, Switzerland.
¹³ Mental Wealth Initiative, The University of Sydney, Sydney 2050, Australia.
¹⁴ Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London, London W1T 7NE, UK.
¹⁵ Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA.
¹⁶ World Bank, Washington, DC 20433, USA.
¹⁷ EcoNeuro, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁸ Baszucki Group, San Mateo, CA 94401, USA.
¹⁹ International Neuro Climate Working Group, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
²⁰ Psychology Today, New York, NY 10010, USA.
²¹ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm 141 52, Sweden.
²² USAgainstAlzheimer's, Washington, DC 20015-2604, USA.
²³ Department of Neuroscience, Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
²⁴ Evelina London Children's Hospital, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London SE1 7EH, UK.
²⁵ Department of Neurosciences, Brain and Behavior Cluster, Universiti Sains Malaysia, School of Medical Sciences/Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan 16150, Malaysia.
²⁶ Academy of Science Malaysia, 20th Floor, Wisma Matrade, Kuala Lumpur 50480, Malaysia.
²⁷ Neurology, Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences, New Delhi 110095, India.
²⁸ Mind and Brain Institute, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
²⁹ Perkins & Will, Dallas, TX 75201, USA.
³⁰ Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
³¹ Institute of Global Health and Human Ecology, The American University of Cairo, Cairo, Egypt.
³² European Brain Council, Brussels 1000, Belgium.
³³ Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA.
³⁴ Regional Centre for Neurosurgery, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, Nigeria.
³⁵ Department of Surgery and Neuroscience Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
³⁶ Neurology Department, Inselspital (CLAB), University of Bern, Bern 3008, Switzerland.
³⁷ Swiss Brain Health Plan (CLAB), Bern 3008, Switzerland.
³⁸ Global Brain Health Institute, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
³⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.

Abstract

Optimal brain health is essential to smoothing major global skill-intensive economic transitions, such as the bioeconomy, green, care economy and digital transitions. Good brain health is vital to socio-economic sustainability, productivity and well-being. The care transition focuses on recognizing and investing in care services and care work as essential for economic growth and social well-being. The green transition involves shifting towards environmentally sustainable and fairer societies to combat climate change and environmental degradation. The digital transition aims to unlock digital growth potential and deploy innovative solutions for businesses and citizens, and to improve the accessibility and efficiency of services. The bioeconomy transition refers to the shift towards an economy based on products, services and processes derived from biological resources, such as plants and microorganisms. Brain capital, which encompasses brain health and brain skills, is a critical economic asset for the success of economies of the future. The brain economy transition from a brain-negative (brain-unhealthy) economy, which depletes brain capital, to a brain-positive (brain-healthy) economy, which arrests and reverses the loss of brain capital, will be foundational to these major transitions. Increased brain capital is vital to educational attainment, upskilling and reskilling. In this paper, we provide a detailed roadmap for the brain economy transition.

Keywords: brain health; economics; mental health; neurology; transition.