Toward a Brain Capital Living Lab model: multi-scale opportunities

Abstract

Brain capital is a conceptual framework incorporatingbrain health and brain skills in the knowledge economy.1This is based on the understanding that our brains areour greatest asset. It provides an approach for defining,quantifying, and tracking brain issues. Brain capital canbe driven into policies and investments.Brain capital activities have been advancing quicklygiven the many brain challenges humanity faces, andthe fact that these challenges require intellectual capitalfor resolution – from rising rates of depression andanxiety, to the effects of long COVID-19, to rising ratesof Alzheimer’s disease, to concerns over susceptibilityto fake news and educational losses during COVID.Moreover, brain capital goes beyond medicalization bybringing a truly transdisciplinary approach to understanding the links between health, economy, well-being,and equity.Multiple factors affect brain capital across severalscales: individual, family, community, environment, andsociety. At the individual level, age, genetics, race,ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, beliefs,knowledge, attitudes, lifestyle, personality, and copingskills are operative factors. At the family level, there arerelationships with siblings, parents and caregivers, familymental health, financial stability, domestic violence, andtrauma. At the community level, there are relationshipswith friends and colleagues, faith communities, schools,universities, workplaces and levels of community supportand resources. At the environment level, there isneighborhood safety, access to green and blue spaces,healthy food, housing, health care, pollution, naturaldisasters, and climate change. At the societal level, thereare social and economic inequalities, discrimination,racism, migration, media and technology, popular culture,and government policies.