The average adult brain is roughly 2% of total body weight. But the brain receives approximately 20% of the blood pumped by the heart.

The brain influences the heart; emotional states like sadness and joy can influence heart rhythms and blood pressure. And the heart sends signals back to the brain through nerves and hormones, affecting things like mood, attention, and stress levels.

And increasingly, researchers are starting to view disorders such as high blood pressure as neurological conditions, where the brain is both a cause and an early victim of chronic disease.

This interconnection is why Brain Canada, together with partners and donors, has made strategic investments to advance research at the intersection of heart and brain research. Driven by the One Brain approach, Brain Canada has encouraged researchers to take risks and break down silos, to establish new ways of thinking and collaborating, and to shift existing paradigms and open entirely new lines of inquiry. 

The result is a series of discoveries that are improving prevention and care and moving us towards a future where heart health and brain health are approached as one.

Strengthening the blood–brain barrier protects against anxiety and depression

For decades, scientists have searched for the biological roots of stress resilience in neurons. With support from a Brain Canada Future Leaders grant, Dr. Caroline Ménard at l’Université Laval turned to the blood–brain barrier — the protective border linking the brain with the blood vessels, powered by the heart, and the immune system. Her team found that chronic stress weakens this barrier, allowing inflammation to enter the brain and increase vulnerability to anxiety and depression. Resilience occurs when barrier integrity is maintained, supported by higher levels of CB1 receptors on astrocytes, the star-shaped cells lining the barrier. Increasing these receptors in mice reduced stress-related behaviours, and exercise and effective antidepressants were also linked to higher CB1 levels. The findings identify a promising new therapeutic target for depression and anxiety.

“We don’t only feel emotion in our brain; we feel it in our gut, we feel it in other systems. That’s why we study the blood-brain barrier – it connects the brain with the immune system, with the vascular system, and with all the hormones that circulate in the blood.”

“Our understanding of those interconnections and their influence on health is advancing, and we’re developing tools in the lab to facilitate that.”
– Dr. Caroline Ménard

Read more about stress resilience and the blood-brain barrier here.

Blood vessels contribute to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias

Small vessel disease (SVD) — damage to the brain’s tiny blood vessels — is a major risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. In turn, Alzheimer’s can cause SVD by contributing to the build-up of a protein called beta-amyloid in the brain’s blood vessels. Preventing the damage caused by these brain conditions requires understanding the biology linking the two. With support from Brain Canada and the Alzheimer’s Association, Dr. Walter Swardfager explored precisely this. He and his team at the University of Toronto and Sunnybrook Research Institute discovered several variations in the genome that make some people more vulnerable to brain shrinkage when SVD is present. Targeting these genes could open several doors to new treatments to slow or prevent dementia progression.

“We’re now submitting and receiving grants that build on the science in this area and may take us all the way to clinical trials. It’s been tremendous.”
– Dr. Walter Swardfager

Read more about small vessel disease and Alzheimer’s here.

How a drug delivered by ambulance is changing stroke treatment

Strokes are often considered “brain attacks”; similar to heart attacks, they’re caused by a disruption of blood flow or bleeding in the vessels that supply the brain. For decades, researchers have searched for neuroprotective drugs that can protect brain tissue in the critical window between stroke onset and hospital treatment. Despite more than 200 clinical trials, early promise from animal studies had never translated to patients — until now. Co-funded by Brain Canada, the FRONTIER trial led by Dr. Jim Christenson at the University of British Columbia tested the drug Nerinetide by delivering it in the ambulance, immediately after symptoms began — an unprecedented approach in Canada. Published in The Lancet, the study showed that neuroprotection in humans is both possible and beneficial, and identified which stroke patients are most likely to benefit. The findings bring this long-sought therapy closer to clinical practice, with the potential to improve outcomes for thousands of stroke patients.

“We’re incredibly proud to have supported such an ambitious project. Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide – one in four adults will have a stroke in their lifetime.”

“These game-changing results will bring hope to millions of people around the world.”
– Dr. Viviane Poupon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Brain Canada

Read more about the FRONTIER trial here.

Other critical projects underway at the heart-brain interface

The Heart–Brain Connection IMPACT Awards

Funded in partnership with Heart & Stroke, these awards are transforming how heart and brain diseases are understood and treated. One project led by Dr. Peter Liu is closing the gap between cardiac and cognitive care by developing blood tests, advanced imaging, and new therapies to predict and protect against combined heart–brain risk. Another led by Dr. Douglas Lee and Dr. Gustavo Saposnik is advancing early detection of stroke, heart failure, and vascular dementia using artificial intelligence and innovative diagnostics. Together, these projects integrate clinical expertise, patient partnership, and Indigenous engagement to prevent disability, improve early intervention, and fundamentally reshape care for interconnected heart and brain conditions.

Congenital Heart Disease Team Grant

Dr. Thalia Field is investigating how being born with a heart defect affects brain health throughout life. Congenital heart disease occurs in 1% of births, and medical advances now enable 90% of these children to survive to adulthood— which has created a growing population with lifelong health challenges and unknown long-term risks to brain health. With support from Heart & Stroke, Brain Canada, and CIHR’s Institutes of Circulatory and Respiratory Health and Genetics, Dr. Field and her team are mapping brain health trajectories by analyzing existing data, following children with repeat brain imaging, and examining sex-based differences in stroke risk and cognitive and psychological impacts.

Research Networks of Excellence in Women’s Heart and Brain Health

The pan-Canadian research network called StrokeGoRed is funded in partnership between Heart & Stroke, Brain Canada, and CIHR’s Institute of Gender and Health. Led by Dr. Amy Yu and involving over 50 collaborators, StrokeGoRed is addressing critical gaps in stroke research by studying sex and gender differences in prevention, care, and recovery. After decades of male-dominated studies that inadequately represented women’s unique stroke experiences, the network will fill knowledge gaps that will inform more personalized, inclusive stroke care that better serves all patients.

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Through more than a decade of support, the Seger-van Tol family has created meaningful opportunities for emerging researchers who will shape the future of brain science.

A Vision Takes Flight

The Dr. Hubert van Tol Travel Fellowship began with a clear purpose: to empower early-career researchers by giving them access to the training, conferences, and international collaborations that accelerate scientific growth. Named in honour of the late Dr. Hubert van Tol, a pioneering neuroscientist and Dr. Seger’s husband, the fellowship removes financial barriers that often limit promising researchers at a critical stage in their careers.

“Trainees have brilliant ideas and boundless energy. We want to help offer the kind of opportunities and experiences that transform good researchers into exceptional ones.” – Dr. Monica Seger

From Travel Awards to Rising Stars

As Brain Canada’s programs evolved, so did the Seger-van Tol family’s commitment. The Dr. Hubert van Tol Travel Fellowship became a cornerstone of the Rising Stars Trainee Awards program, one of Brain Canada’s flagship initiatives supporting the next generation of neuroscientists. This evolution strengthened the original vision to give Master’s students, PhD students and postdoctoral fellows the resources, mentorship, and visibility they need to launch impactful research careers.  

The Rising Stars program provides crucial support to talented trainees as they build preliminary data, develop professional networks, and gain hands-on experience that will fuel long-term success.

Where Research Programs and People Connect

Recently, Dr. Seger visited Rising Star and Dr. Hubert van Tol Travel Fellowship recipient Sofia Gentile at the University of Toronto’s Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases. Under the supervision of Dr. Naomi Visanji, Gentile is advancing research focused on progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting motor and cognitive abilities that involves the toxic accumulation of tau in brain. By using a new technique called Imaging Mass Cytometry that will enable them to use brain tissue to identify brain structures, blood vessels, nerve cells, tau protein, and more, the team will gain important insights into how the immune system and inflammation interact with tau in PSP to better understand how the disease develops.

Dr. Visanji herself is a recipient of a Brain Canada Future Leader in Canadian Brain Research grant, creating a powerful example of how strategic investment in researchers at early stages of their career generates ripple effects across the neuroscience ecosystem. A Future Leader mentoring a Rising Star, both supported by donors who believe that the future of neuroscience depends on trusting and investing in early-career researchers.

“My ultimate goal is to become a leading researcher in neurodegeneration, with a strong focus on mentorship and education, uplifting the next generation of female scientists.” – Sofia Gentile

While established scientists receive considerable support, emerging researchers often face a critical funding gap precisely when they need resources most. Supporting them early enables discoveries that will define the next era of neuroscience.  

“Seeing these researchers at work reinforces why this matters so much,” Dr. Seger reflects. “We’re not just funding projects. We are investing in people whose passion, dedication and questioning will shape the future of brain research.”

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In 2016, Yasser Iturria-Medina, Ph.D., and his post-doctoral supervisor at the time, Alan Evans, Ph.D., published findings that quietly helped shift how scientists think about Alzheimer’s disease. Today, that work has informed several therapeutic patents and opened the door to a distinct class of drug targets currently being tested on patients around the world. 

The shift 

Ten years ago, the Alzheimer’s disease research field was dominated by a single paradigm – the amyloid-beta hypothesis. Most studies focused on one type of data at a time, such as a specific kind of brain scan.

With the support of Brain Canada, Prof. Iturria-Medina was able to go beyond that one-cause, one-pathway thinking. He and his colleagues brought together multiple biological “layers” at once: vascular changes, protein pathology, structural and functional brain imaging, and more. Using computational, data-driven methods rather than hand-drawn cartoon models, the team showed that these biological factors don’t act in isolation – they interact, propagate across brain networks, and shape disease progression together.

“Our paper confirmed that we need to consider a multi-dimensional view of these very complex disorders, rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.” – Prof. Yasser Iturria-Medina 

For the research community, this finding was significant. For the first time, all those who were trying to challenge the existing paradigm in Alzheimer’s disease research had evidence that alternative hypotheses were worth exploring. “They saw the findings as long-awaited support for their alternative hypotheses,” Prof. Iturria-Medina recounts. 

The early and important role of the vascular system

 
One of the most important findings Prof. Iturria-Medina’s work was the central role of the vascular system in Alzheimer’s disease. The team showed that vascular changes appear early and persist across all stages of the disease, which contrasted with the dominant narrative featuring amyloid-beta at the center of the story. This gave lines of research on blood vessels, inflammation, and blood–brain barrier integrity a powerful piece of large-scale, quantitative support.  

“Even if the amyloid and tau hypothesis were totally true, we know that the clearance of these molecules depends on the integrity of the vascular system,” says Prof. Iturria-Medina. “And once the blood–brain barrier permeability is affected, more agents which could be toxic or negative could enter the brain. That opens a Pandora’s box… it can basically erase everything.”

What’s the impact 

From a solutions standpoint, the 2016 paper is directly cited in several new, therapeutic patents that focus on improving blood flow and repairing the neurovascular system, technologies that drive better brain health and neurorehabilitation. It’s also indirectly implicated in three distinct clinical trials currently underway to target the brain’s blood vessels to assess whether better vascular health can support memory and thinking in Alzheimer’s disease. 

Scientifically, Prof. Iturria-Medina’s work has helped move the Alzheimer’s disease research field toward causal frameworks, looking deeply at the molecular level to better understand how different biological factors drive disease progression over time. It also strengthened the idea that there is not “one Alzheimer’s,” but multiple trajectories and subtypes, each with its own mechanisms and biomarkers.

For Prof. Iturria-Medina, now an Associate Professor at McGill University and researcher at The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital), this paper became a turning point in his career. It solidified his commitment to a multi-factorial, causal, and personalized view of neurodegenerative disease—one that he now extends to studies on Parkinson’s, ALS, and other disorders. For example, his subsequent work, funded via a Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research grant, uses large-scale imaging, genetics, blood-based molecular data, and high-resolution single-cell analyses to identify individual “signatures” of disease and to predict who is most likely to respond to specific treatments. Prof. Iturria-Medina feeds these computational insights directly to collaborators who test targeted interventions in the lab, integrating lifestyle factors and social determinants of health for a wholistic approach to prevention and treatment. 

“We’re working with biological data that reflects what is happening at the genetic level, at the epigenetic level, at the proteomic level, so we’re able to simulate how a clinical intervention will affect the brain of every person. We’re even able to help select the right patients or participants for upcoming clinical trials,” he says.

“In reality, everything is connected, so we are trying to connect the most points possible to get the most representative models and estimations to help patients.” 

This is the power of the One Brain approach championed by Brain Canada – by looking at the brain as an interconnected system, Prof. Iturria-Medina and colleagues showed that Alzheimer’s disease is not the story of one molecule, but of many interacting biological factors. This broader view has helped to open new paths of inquiry, towards more precise, effective, and individualized care. 

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Dr. Emma Duerden is an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in neuroscience and learning disorders – applied psychology at Western University. Dr. Franco Vaccarino is professor emeritus at the University of Guelph and former president and vice chancellor. Alison Palmer is the evaluation and special projects lead at Brain Canada Foundation. 

When it comes to online harms, Canada is at a crossroads. When Parliament resumed this fall under Prime Minister Mark Carney, we expected swift action on the Online Harms Bill (Bill C-63) and an opportunity to advance the conversation around how we can protect children’s health and well-being in an increasingly digital world.

Instead, it continues to be unclear whether the Carney government intends to move the bill forward and Canada still lacks a co-ordinated strategy to address the developmental, cognitive and mental health risks of excessive screen use.

Since the 1990s, Canada’s online harms response has developed only incrementally, with few updates. Meanwhile, digital environments have evolved rapidly, reshaping childhood and adolescence. Infants now swipe before they speak. Teens can spend 12 hours a day online. AI-enhanced platforms and opaque algorithms influence how children play, communicate, and learn — often in ways parents and policymakers don’t fully understand.

Excessive screen time in early childhood is linked to developmental delays, especially for language and social interaction. For older children and teens, daily screen use beyond two hours is associated with anxiety, depression, and reduced self-esteem. Longitudinal studies connect social media use with increased impulsivity, aggression, self-harm and eating disorder symptoms.

Brain imaging studies reveal that screen time can affect how young brains grow and function. In young children, heavy use is associated with changes in areas tied to language, vision and higher-order thinking. For teens, frequent social media use can alter how the brain responds to rewards and feedback, activating circuits similar to those involved in addiction. While more research is needed, these findings suggest screen use is shaping brain development — and may affect behaviour and mental health over time.

Longitudinal studies connect social media use with increased impulsivity, aggression, self-harm and eating disorder symptoms.” – Emma Duerden, Franco Vaccarino, and Alison Palmer

Some argue the evidence is only correlational. But when it comes to children, even small effects demand serious attention. The developing brain is sensitive to environmental input. Our policy choices today will shape a generation’s mental health, academic success, and future well-being.

We’ve seen this before. It took decades for tobacco, substance use and childhood obesity to be addressed as public health priorities. Waiting for absolute certainty on screen-related harms risks repeating those costly mistakes.

What’s needed is a smarter, evidence-based approach: age-appropriate guidance, stronger regulation, better education, and a commitment to equity. That requires national leadership and co-ordination.

The Quebec Special Commission on the Impacts of Screens and Social Media on Youth recently issued 56 recommendations — from awareness campaigns to digital literacy in schools and improved monitoring. The Canadian Paediatric Society has launched a Centre for Healthy Screen Use, offering practical guidance for families and professionals.

Healthy use is crucial. Digital platforms can offer benefits, especially for youth who are neurodivergent or facing mental health challenges. These spaces offer connection, self-expression, and validation. But those benefits must be balanced with protections.

Other countries are acting. Some jurisdictions have imposed outright bans — like Australia blocking social media access for those under 16. The U.K.’s Children’s Code requires digital products likely to be accessed by youth be designed in “the best interests of the child.” It has reduced targeted advertising and inappropriate content on popular platforms.

Still, many apps rely on manipulative design — notifications, streaks and AI-personalized content — to keep children hooked. Young users are particularly vulnerable due to immature decision-making centres in the brain. As tech becomes more immersive, this manipulation will become more sophisticated.

Frustratingly, independent researchers are blocked from studying these effects, because companies aren’t required to share data or disclose how their algorithms work. That must change.

Canada must move beyond narrow definitions of harm and address the broader digital environment in which children live and grow. Youth must be involved in these conversations.

Key priorities for action include:

• Digital literacy integrated into school curricula
• Public funding for screen-life balance programs
• A regulatory framework modelled on the UK’s Children’s Code
• Long-term investment in research and knowledge mobilization
• Data transparency requirements for tech companies

The goal isn’t to eliminate technology — it’s to create safer digital environments and support families to navigate them wisely. Because right now, we’re letting children’s brains be the testing ground for unregulated innovation.

The time for national action is now. The next generation’s health depends on it.

Note: This op-ed is informed by a recent panel discussion on this topic organized by Brain Canada and hosted by the Canadian Science Policy Centre that included panellists Dr. Emma Duerden, Dr. Patricia Conrod, Dr. Munmun De Choudhury, Dr. Sara Grimes, Dr. Michelle Ponti, and Vidhi Desai, and was moderated by Brain Canada Board Director Dr. Franco Vaccarino.

This op-ed by Emma Duerden, Franco Vaccarino, and Alison Palmer was originally published in the Toronto Star on November 24, 2025.

The post Screens are changing young brains. Canada needs a plan appeared first on Brain Canada Foundation.

As part of our mission to fund bold brain research, Brain Canada has, together with its donors and partners, supported dozens of large-scale research projects and platforms to develop and apply cutting-edge AI approaches to advance our understanding of the brain and identify solutions for brain diseases and disorders.  

In fact, the most highly cited Brain Canada-funded publication, co-funded with CIFAR, is from AI pioneers Drs. Yann Le Cun, Yoshua Bengio and Nobel Prize Laureate Geoffrey Hinton. Dr. Hinton was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics with John Hopfield for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks. 

This accomplishment – and the impact it enabled, within and beyond academia – is a testament to the value of supporting high risk, high reward research. Right now, through the analysis of vast datasets from neuroimaging, genetic studies, and clinical records, AI tools are enhancing researchers’ ability to uncover the mechanisms underlying brain conditions and their progression, promising earlier detection and better, more personalized treatments.  

Here are just a few examples of how Brain Canada-funded projects at the interface of neuroscience and AI are improving outcomes.  

Improving the diagnostic accuracy of routine EEG testing for epilepsy 

Dr. Elie Bou Assi at l’Université de Montréal used his 2022 Future Leader in Canadian Brain Research grant to test a bold idea – could AI help analyze routine electroencephalograms (EEGs), tests of the brain’s electrical activity, to improve the accuracy of epilepsy diagnosis? 

Currently, a routine EEG will identify the tell-tale signals of epilepsy, known as spikes, in less than half of patients with the condition. Misdiagnosis remains a challenge in clinical practice, highlighting the need for complementary tools to support EEG interpretation. Dr. Bou Assi and his team sought to address this challenge with DeepEpilepsy, a machine learning model they developed to automate the processing of EEGs. They trained and tested the model on over 800 EEGs. DeepEpilepsy was able to detect subtle signal patterns linked to seizure risk, even when no visible spikes were present. The model achieved an area-under-the-curve (AUC) of 0.76, compared to 0.69 for standard EEG review based on visible spikes. When combined with review based on spikes, Deep Epilepsy’s performance rose to 0.83.  

This proof of concept shows that AI can detect subtle brain-wave patterns specialists may miss, offering a promising way to enable earlier diagnosis, earlier treatment, and improved outcomes. With these results in hand, Dr. Bou Assi and his team successfully obtained additional funding that will allow them to conduct a validation study at the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM).  

Beyond the scientific outcomes, the grant enabled close collaboration between engineers, neurologists, and data scientists, accelerating the translation of AI methods into tools that could ultimately improve diagnostic accuracy and accessibility in epilepsy care. 

By revealing patterns that aren’t visible to the naked eye, AI gives us a new way to read EEGs and to better understand seizure risk. The Future Leader grant from Brain Canada made it possible to take this step from concept to real-world testing.

Dr. Elie Bou Assi 

Read more here. 

Better detecting metastatic brain cancer without surgery 

Dr. Reza Forghani and colleagues at McGill University and international partners received a Spark Grant in 2021 from Brain Canada, the Canadian Cancer Society and CIHR to create an AI model that detects the spread of metastatic brain cancer using routine MRI scans—without aggressive surgery.  

The proof-of-concept study tested the AI model using MRI scans from over 130 patients who had surgery to remove brain metastases at The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital. Comparing the results to what doctors observed by examining brain tumour samples under the microscope, the team found that the AI model identified cancer cells in surrounding brain tissue with 85 per cent accuracy.  

Brain metastases are the most common type of brain cancer, occurring when cancer cells from other parts of the body spread to the brain. Surgery to confirm this spread is often risky or impossible. By spotting subtle MRI patterns often too faint for the human eye, the AI model Dr. Forghani and colleagues developed offers a non-invasive way to guide treatment decisions earlier and more accurately. With further testing and development, this technology could help doctors identify patients at higher risk of tumour regrowth and tailor therapies, potentially improving survival and quality of life for people living with metastatic brain cancer.  

Read more here. 

Supporting shared decision-making between patients with major depression and clinicians 

Dr. Manuela Ferrari at the Douglas Research Centre, an expert in bridging knowledge and practice, is supported through the Bell Let’s Talk–Brain Canada Mental Health Research Program for her project testing an AI-based smartphone app designed to better manage the treatment of depression.  

The tool, which was developed by a startup in Quebec, boosts communication between clinicians and patients, enabling clinicians to monitor their patients’ symptoms and responses to medication between appointments. Combining the best clinical evidence with machine learning, the tool uses the data gathered to propose a personalized treatment plan and support shared decision-making between patient and clinician. Dr. Ferrari and colleagues tested the efficacy and safety of the tool via a multicenter, randomized controlled trial across nine sites. 

Almost 30 percent of patients using the tool with their clinicians achieved remission compared with none in the control group, with symptoms improving significantly faster. No tool-related adverse events were reported. These findings provide strong preliminary evidence that AI can uncover subtle patterns clinicians may miss, offering a promising way to speed and improve depression care. 

We need to extend care outside the walls of traditional health-care settings, and outside these one-time interactions. We need to be present where the person is. And this is where technology can help us.

– Dr.  Manuela Ferrari 

Read more here. 

Read about our research platforms in the AI space.

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Canada has always invested in brain science, even during fiscal challenges. While others pursue AI dominance through speed and scale, we could lead by putting human cognition at the centre.

Right now, as you read this, Canada’s AI Strategy Task Force is in the midst of a 30-day national sprint that will reshape our technological future. At the recent ALL IN conference in Montreal, AI Minister Evan Solomon tasked 26 brilliant minds with delivering recom­mendations by this month, recommendations that will guide billions in investment and governance decisions affecting every Canadian.

The task force brings essential expertise: Patrick Pichette’s business acumen, Ajay Agrawal’s economic insight, Joëlle Pineau’s technical depth. Pineau’s AI-epilepsy work shows how artificial and natural intelligence should inform each other. But technology that fundamentally alters human cognition demands more than one neuroscience voice across seven themes. Brain expertise must be woven throughout, addressing what AI governance consistently misses: we study what artificial intelligence can do, not what it does to us.

Canada’s strategic advantage

Canada ranks among the top five countries in brain research, publishing 6.4 per cent of global neuroscience articles, with world-leading scientists and re­search centres nationwide. This strategic asset could differenti­ate Canada in the global AI race yet remains untapped.

The task force’s seven themes are comprehensive and im­portant. But several have direct brain health implications that demand neuroscience expertise. When the “safe AI and public trust” theme grapples with AI in health care, who will evaluate AI diagnostic tools for neurological conditions? These systems are already being deployed in Cana­dian hospitals to detect strokes, predict Alzheimer’s progression, and identify depression bio­markers. Without neuroscientists at the table, we’re essentially designing brain health policy without brain health experts.

Consider what’s happening in classrooms: AI tutors adapt to how students learn while their brains are still developing. Until age 25, the parts controlling focus, decision-making, and self-control are still forming and these AI systems are influenc­ing that development. Yet no brain expert is asking: will this strengthen young minds or weaken them?

AI was built by mimicking the brain. Now it’s reshaping how we think, remember, and decide. How do we govern tech­nology that alters human cog­nition? We need neuroscientists who understand both artificial and natural intelligence.

The world is watching

Recently, the United Nations launched a global dialogue on AI governance with a 40-member expert panel. The convergence of neuroscience and AI is being recognized globally. I saw this first-hand at the UN’s Brain Days discussing the emerging $1.8-trillion brain economy. Yet while nations race for AI dom­inance, few address cognitive sovereignty: the right of citizens to understand and govern how AI shapes their minds.

Canada could lead. While the United States retreats from glob­al AI governance, Canada could distinguish itself by properly integrating brain science into AI policy. We have the research capacity, collaborative culture, and momentum to do it.

Nobel laureate Daron Acemo­glu warns AI risks becoming an “inequality-generating” technol­ogy. But inequality isn’t just eco­nomic, it’s cognitive. Those who understand how AI influences attention and decision-making will thrive; those who don’t will have their behaviour predicted and shaped by systems they cannot comprehend. Without un­derstanding these mechanisms, we cannot design appropriate protections.

Real risks to Canadians

Research in Natural Human Behaviour shows humans don’t just use AI predictions we inter­nalize them. Small biases com­pound through feedback loops, distorting how we perceive reality. Our brains, evolved over millennia, are being reshaped by systems we’ve built but don’t fully understand.

AI therapy bots now serve Canadians with limited clinical oversight. Studies document troubling patterns: contradicting established treatment approach­es, showing dangerous biases, failing to escalate crisis situa­tions. These aren’t hypothetical they’re documented failures affecting vulnerable people seeking mental health support.

When students rely heavily on AI, they skip the effort that builds memory, reasoning, and critical thinking. Yet research shows properly designed AI could actually help learning, taking care of busywork while strengthening thinking skills. The difference between harm and help depends entirely on understanding how these tools affect developing minds.

Act now or fall behind

First, add an eighth theme: Cognitive Impact and Brain Health. Every other theme affects the brain without ex­plicitly addressing it. Public trust requires understanding mental health effects. Education policy needs developmental neuroscientists.

Second, tap into existing networks. Brain Canada has consulted with more than 75 Canadian experts on AI-neuro­science convergence. We have world-leading scientists that stand ready to contribute.

Third, recognize that brain understanding isn’t parallel to AI development, it’s fundamental. As AI changes how we process information, make decisions, and form beliefs, brain experts must inform policy. The initial risks aren’t to our economy or security; they are to our minds.

Our moment to lead

Geoffrey Hinton earned the Nobel in 2024 for neural net­works inspired by brain archi­tecture. Canada’s AI leadership began with understanding nat­ural intelligence. This heritage positions us uniquely: we can be the first nation to fully integrate brain science into AI policy as these systems reshape human cognition. November’s task force recommendations will affect 40 million minds for decades. Can­ada has always invested in brain science, even during fiscal chal­lenges. While others pursue AI dominance through speed and scale, we could lead by putting human cognition at the centre.

This op-ed by Viviane Poupon was originally published in The Hill Times on October 31, 2025.

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