Texas Needs a State Brain Research Institute

Learn more about efforts to establish a Texas brain research institute here.

Introduction

Brain diseases can cause tremendous pain and suffering for individuals of all ages and their families. The impacts are wide-ranging: Many young parents have lost infants or discovered their child has a debilitating, lifelong brain disorder such as autism, cerebral palsy, or blindness. Countless military veterans have struggled, and continue to struggle, with thoughts of suicide. Professionals in the prime of their life have been struck down by degenerative brain diseases like multiple sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Cumulatively, cases like these greatly impact our communities and economy.

We have the opportunity, however, to take advantage of world-leading research to reduce such cases of brain disorders in Texas. For example, what if aging Texans could regain decades of their neural health? What if emerging adults could reduce depression and stress before they became clinically debilitating, or if students living in poverty could be better equipped to close the academic achievement gap and even accelerate their education? With access to better brain health services, veterans, service members, and first responders could build stronger, faster, and more agile neural networks to calmly meet the constantly changing demands of their work. People struggling with Alzheimer’s disease could increase their well-being to find life still worth living. Babies with autism could be diagnosed within their first year, dramatically improving their life trajectory.

Aims like these demand major, focused research commitments. Recent discoveries in neuroscience have radically revised our understanding of the brain’s lifelong ability to change, adapt, and improve its functioning. Now, we should direct concerted resources toward preventive, predictive, and restorative brain research in order to identify strategies, tools, and treatments for improving brain health and wellness among Texans.

This policy brief is a clarion call for a state-funded institute to research, increase our understanding of, and develop novel treatments for enhanced brain health to build a more vibrant Texas. Such an institute could be modeled after the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), which has created a critical infrastructure for cancer research and prevention in the state and generated numerous economic benefits for the state and local governments. To date, CPRIT has returned 2 1/2 to 4 times the amount of funds invested.

The goal of a state brain research institute would be to combat debilitating conditions such as autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and ALS — and help all Texans become the architects of their own brains and improve their ability to flourish at any age.

What Is Brain Health?

Brain health is defined by the World Health Organization as the promotion of optimal brain development, cognitive health, and well-being across the life course. It has profound implications for every person across all stages of life; optimizing it can push out the age of disease onset or lessen the disability caused by a brain disease or injury. 

The brain drives all that we do, think, create, overcome, solve, and feel. A healthy brain is essential for developing good habits, elevating well-being, enhancing social connection, increasing years of productivity, and expanding creativity — all of which help us to deal with life’s challenges. The brain is our most vital organ, yet most of us do not give our brain a second thought unless it is injured, diseased, or declining. Even for those of us who are otherwise healthy adults, our bodies outlive our brains by 20-plus years.  

Improving the health of the human brain has recently become a pivotal goal on the road toward enhancing population health more broadly. But in order for us to achieve breakthroughs in brain health as we have in heart health, for example, the field needs urgent attention from legislators.

The Pandemic Spotlighted a Growing Brain Health Crisis

In 2021, Texas lawmakers filed legislation that would authorize a state brain research institute. House Bill 15 and House Joint Resolution 5 earned a successful House vote, pending a change to the constitution allowing the issuing of bonds. While this approach garnered some support, the legislation ultimately stalled in the Senate.

Meanwhile, there remains a critical need to invest in brain research. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a brain health crisis that has been developing for decades, as manifested by increasing mental health challenges, sleep disorders, anxiety, social divisiveness, and brain fog. An estimated 22%-32% of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 experience brain fog and cognitive challenges as part of their experience of long COVID. Other research suggests that one-third of COVID-19 sufferers will experience an episode of a new or existing psychiatric problem (often depression or anxiety) in the year following infection. 

It is not just people with severe COVID-19 whose brain health may affected by the virus; studies have found that people across the spectrum of COVID-19 infection, whether hospitalized or not, have experienced challenges with attention, memory, and executive functioning. From a clinical perspective, we know that several factors can lead to post-COVID-19 cognitive problems and mental disorders, including preexisting illnesses, damage from the virus itself, neuroinflammation, and vascular damage. However, further research is needed to understand the mechanisms by which the virus impacts the brain, as well as the extent of its implications for brain health.

Impacts of Brain Health Challenges                    

COVID-19 is also just one of the latest challenges for an ongoing, multifaceted brain and mental health crisis. Deaths from Alzheimer’s disease were exacerbated by the pandemic, increasing 145% in 2020. By 2050, the health care costs for Alzheimer’s patients alone are expected to reach $750 billion per year. Pandemic-related disruptions in the education system have left millions of children falling behind, negatively affecting their mental health and development. (Prior to the pandemic, U.S. students were already lagging behind their peers in other countries; in 2018, the U.S. ranked 32nd in math literacy and 10th in science literacy among the 35 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.) Moreover, since 9/11, over 7,000 service members have died in military action, yet over 30,000 active-duty service members and veterans have died by suicide. This suggests that U.S. military members are 4 times more likely to die from suicide than in combat.             

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdowns and the labor shortages that ensued, the importance of a brain-healthy workforce that can adjust to change also became more apparent. Our businesses and workplaces have become increasingly knowledge-intensive, and workers face pressure to be creative, curious, adaptable, and motivated enough to keep up with changes in technology, globalization, and emerging work styles. Peak brain performance is also intricately linked to enhanced productivity and economic growth. Globally, an estimated $2.5 trillion is lost each year due to poor brain performance. In a 2020 report, the World Economic Forum ranked “analytical thinking and innovation” and “active learning and learning strategies” — skills which had not appeared on its previous lists — as its top two skills for 2025, while “resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility,” another skill cluster that did not make the previous list, debuted at No. 5. All of these “soft skills” are quantifiable and rely on good cognitive performance.

By catalyzing a groundswell of innovation, ranging from precision diagnostics and treatments to future-proofed economic policies and innovative investment models that put brain health at the forefront, a newly created Texas brain research institute could both ease the ongoing brain health crisis and boost the state’s economy. With its many resources — including a highly skilled and diverse workforce, easy access to global markets, reasonable regulatory environment, and large and generous philanthropy and investment sector — Texas is uniquely positioned to lead the way for the country and the world.

The following tables outline existing large-scale health funding efforts at the state, national, and global levels that could inform the creation of a state-funded brain research institute in Texas.

Table 1 — Overview of Mental Health Projects Funded by the Texas State Legislature

Table 2 — Large-scale National and Global Brain Health Funding Initiatives

Conclusion

Our knowledge and understanding of the brain has never been greater, and breathtaking breakthroughs are on the horizon. Advanced brain imaging is helping us improve our understanding of complex neural processes and disease mechanisms. Neuromodulation offers the ability to improve neurologic function by inhibiting or stimulating distinct sets of neurons. Genetic analyses are becoming cheaper and increasingly driving an era of personalized medicine. Gene editing has arrived. Deep brain stimulation and brain-computer interfaces constitute a new frontier of brain engineering. Collectively, these innovations offer new opportunities to understand and tackle some of the most pressing brain challenges using holistic and durable approaches to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of neurologic conditions. There is hope — but we must step up to the plate, invest, lead, and work together.

Today, there is a renewed interest in a comprehensive, cutting-edge, Texas-led approach to integrating brain discoveries, brain metrics, and applied brain science to solve the myriad challenges facing our state. If we are to better understand the science of early learning, combat the mental health crisis, and boost workforce readiness by emphasizing peak brain performance, the time to focus our collective energies and funding on the brain is now.

The potential rewards and sources of economic growth that would stem from a state-funded brain research institute — including increased sales, local, state, and federal tax revenues — are significant. Brain health-focused life sciences companies would be drawn to the state, adding new infrastructure and creating high-quality, well-paying jobs. Cost savings would be realized in the form of reduced health care expenses.

The competition to lead the field of brain health is mounting, with major efforts underway in the U.S. as well as in Europe. But Texas leads the country and much of the world in creating economic growth that fuels quality of life. This is an opportunity to be on the forefront that we cannot afford to lose.

The author would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their review of this paper: Sandra Bond Chapman, Ruth Fitzgibbons, Debbie Hanna, Rita Hortenstine and Andy Keller.

This material may be quoted or reproduced without prior permission, provided appropriate credit is given to the author and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. The views expressed herein are those of the individual author(s), and do not necessarily represent the views of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.