Many Brains Project Inc

TO ACCELERATE RESEARCH ON THE MIND AND BRAIN BY DEVELOPING RESEARCH TOOLS THAT DIRECTLY ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS.

IN FY23, WE HAVE CONTINUED OUR SUPPORT OF THE FREE RESOURCES WE CREATED IN FY21 IN RESPONSE TO THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC ALLOWING RESEARCHERS AND CLINICIANS TO CONDUCT VIRTUAL COGNITIVE ASSESSMENTS IN CLINICAL CARE AND RESEARCH. MANY BRAINS HAS CONDUCTED THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES: (1) DEDICATED RESOURCES TO THE MAINTENANCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF A FREE, ONLINE DIGITAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY TOOLKIT FOR USE BY CLINICIANS AND RESEARCHERS. THIS HAS HAD STEADY USE AND DEVOTED SIGNIFICANT RESOURCES TO HELPING SUPPORT FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH STUDIES TRANSITIONING TO VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS. THUS FAR, ACCESS HAS BEEN REQUESTED BY OVER 1,400 RESEARCHERS AND CLINICIANS, AND FY23 HAS SEEN OVER 2,700 CLINICAL EVALUATION BATTERIES CREATED THROUGH THIS INFRASTRUCTURE AND OVER 14,500 TEST COMPLETIONS. (2) CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR THE TMB OPEN RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PAGE, IN USE AT OVER 400 SITES INTERNATIONALLY AND OVER 3,384 TEST COMPLETIONS IN FY23 ALONE. WE ALSO APPROVED DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW TOOLKIT TO REPLACE THE TMB OPEN RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PAGE THAT WILL INCLUDE IMPROVEMENTS TO THE USER INTERFACES, IMPROVEMENTS TO DOCUMENTATION OF TESTS AND DATA, SOFTWARE UPGRADES, AND A MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD APPROACH TO USER REGISTRATION. THIS IS PLANNED FOR COMPLETION IN FY24. (3) SUPPORTED THE CONTINUED DIGITIZATION OF RESEARCH STUDIES ALL OVER THE COUNTRY AS STUDIES IN HUMAN HEALTH INCREASINGLY FOCUS ON TESTING A GLOBAL POPULATION OF PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS. WE HAVE ENGAGED IN SPONSORED RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS TO SUPPORT RESEARCH STUDIES THAT ARE ONGOING AND SEEK TO USE COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT TO BETTER UNDERSTAND COGNITIVE FUNCTION IN HEALTH AND DISEASES. NOTABLY, IN FY23, WE SUPPORTED SOME OF THE LARGEST STUDIES IN HEALTH RESEARCH, INCLUDING THE LANDMARK NIH ALL OF US RESEARCH PROGRAM (SEE BELOW). (4) IN FY23 WE CURATED A NEW DATASET AVAILABLE FOR QUALIFIED RESEARCHERS. THIS QUALIFIED RESEARCHER TMB DATASET INCLUDES LARGE DATASETS FROM OUR OPEN-SOURCE COGNITIVE TESTS THAT ARE AVAILABLE FOR RESEARCHERS TO USE TO INVESTIGATE THEIR OWN RESEARCH QUESTIONS IN RELATION TO COGNITION AND THE BRAIN. THIS LARGE, RICH DATASET INCLUDES DATA FROM OVER 72,342 PARTICIPANTS. THIS DATA HAS ALREADY BEEN SHARED WITH RESEARCH TEAMS AT BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, WILLIAM PATTERSON UNIVERSITY, AND THE NETHERLANDS' DONDERS INSTITUTE. (5) IN FY23, WE LAUNCHED THE "I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN" (ISWYM) PROJECT IN COLLABORATION WITH THE PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT AT WELLESLEY COLLEGE. THIS PROJECT WAS BASED ON A KEY INSIGHT THAT THE STANDARD WAY OF VISUALIZING DATA ON HUMAN COGNITION CAN BE MISLEADING AND DOESN'T TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MODERN DATA SCIENCE TOOLS AND METHODS. ISWYM WAS LAUNCHED TO DEVELOP DATA SCIENCE RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS AND RESEARCHERS THAT ALLOW BETTER VISUALIZATION OF HUMAN PARTICIPANT DATA PRODUCED BY COGNITIVE TESTS. AN INITIAL PROTOTYPE OF THE ISWYM DASHBOARD WAS DEVELOPED DURING FY23 BASED ON A GENEROUS DONATION. BELOW ARE A FEW KEY PROJECTS WE SUPPORTED THAT ARE HIGH IMPACT WITH MAJOR INVESTMENT FROM THE US NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH. IN FY23, FOR EXAMPLE, WE ENGAGED IN SPONSORED RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS TO SUPPORT MAJOR PROJECTS IN HEALTH AND SCIENCE THAT INCLUDED: (1) THE ALL OF US RESEARCH PROGRAM, AN NIH LED PROGRAM THAT IS DEVELOPING THE MOST DIVERSE HEALTH DATABASE IN HISTORY, TO LEARN ABOUT HOW BIOLOGY, LIFESTYLE AND ENVIRONMENT IMPACT HEALTH WITH THE GOAL OF TREATING AND PREVENTING DISEASE. TOGETHER, WE LAUNCHED THE NATIONAL "EXPLORING THE MIND" STUDY WHICH WILL COLLECT KEY DATA FOR UNDERSTANDING COGNITIVE AND MENTAL HEALTH FOR INVESTIGATORS ALL OVER THE WORLD. HTTPS://WWW.NIMH.NIH.GOV/NEWS/SCIENCE-NEWS/2024/USING-GAMES-TO-EXPLORE-THE-MIND(2) THE NIMH EARLY PSYCHOSIS INTERVENTION NETWORK (EPINET), A NATIONAL LEARNING HEALTHCARE SYSTEM FOR EARLY PSYCHOSIS THAT IS IMPROVING CARE FOR PEOPLE WITH PSYCHOSIS AND CONDUCTING LARGE-SCALE RESEARCH BASED IN CLINICAL PRACTICE(3) THE SIBLING INTERACTION AND BEHAVIOR STUDY (SIBS; BASED AT UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA), A STUDY OF ADOPTIVE AND BIOLOGICAL SIBLINGS AND THEIR PARENTS. 617 FAMILIES PARTICIPATED IN THE INTAKE PHASE OF THIS STUDY. THE PRIMARY PURPOSES OF THIS STUDY ARE TO UNDERSTAND HOW SIBLINGS INTERACT AND INFLUENCE ONE ANOTHER, HOW FAMILY ENVIRONMENT HAS AN IMPACT ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH OF ADOLESCENTS, AND HOW ADOPTIVE FAMILIES ARE SIMILAR TO AND DIFFERENT FROM NON-ADOPTIVE FAMILIES.(4) THE US NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF ADOLESCENT TO ADULT HEALTH, WHICH IS FOLLOWING 10,000 PEOPLE ACROSS THEIR LIFESPAN TO BETTER UNDERSTAND HOW BRAIN AND COGNITIVE CHANGES CAN LEAD TO ALZHEIMER'S AND RELATED DEMENTIAS.THE PUBLIC WEBSITE (TESTMYBRAIN.ORG) THAT PROVIDES EVERYDAY PEOPLE WITH INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR MIND / BRAIN CONTINUED TO BE ACTIVE, AND 2022 SAW VISITORS COMPLETE OVER 450,000 COGNITIVE TESTS WHERE THEY RECEIVED THEIR INDIVIDUALIZED RESEARCH DATA BACK AT THE END OF THEIR PARTICIPATION. THE PUBLIC WEBSITE REPRESENTS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE MANY BRAINS PROJECT, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, AND MCLEAN HOSPITAL. SOFTWARE SUPPORT IS PROVIDED BY THE MANY BRAINS PROJECT.