At a recent gathering of the G7 conference goers were told the future of economic growth depends on optimizing ‘brain capital,’ a term that encompasses brain health and cognitive, emotional, and social skills.
The brain economy, the idea that communities, societies, and countries contribute to economic growth and stability through their collective brainpower, is the New New Thing and in the coming months governments and companies are likely to hear a lot more about it.
The brain – the body’s most vital organ, regulating all the systems needed for basic survival, cognition, and social/emotional well-being – is increasingly under threat from a variety of sources including rising levels of cognitive decline in ageing populations, increasing chronic disease, negative impacts from climate change and unhealthy environments, and escalating levels of mental health challenges across major life phases. In fact, more than 3 billion people worldwide are living with a neurological condition at a cost of $5 trillion per year to the global economy and neurological conditions are the number one leading cause of disease burden worldwide.
At the same time, thanks to the rapid evolution and use of new technologies and research approaches, scientific understanding of the brain is rapidly accelerating. These new avenues for innovation and investment could unlock up to $26 trillion in potential global economic opportunities by prioritizing brain health, says Andy Moose, the World Economic Forum’s Head of Health and Wellness, Centre for Health and Healthcare.
Earlier this year the Forum launched, in collaboration with the McKinsey Health Institute, the Brain Economy Action Forum to bring together a diverse and dynamic group of stakeholders to elevate brain health as a global priority and help tackle major challenges such as:
- Improving cognitive performance to sustain workforce adaptability in the face of technological innovation and AI
- Developing cognitive resilience in the face of geopolitical uncertainty, changes in the job market and digital misinformation
- Improving the diagnosis, treatment, and management of mental health and rising neurodegenerative diseases which risk hurting workforce productivity and increasing healthcare and social costs.
Focusing on the brain economy is “a smart strategy for countries, communities and companies because it will not only improve brain health but productivity, innovation and economic resilience,” says Kana Enomoto, director of brain health for the McKinsey Health Institute. “According to our research it would allow 80 million more people to fully participate in the work force and result in $6 trillion in cumulative GDP gains.”
Among other things, the Brain Economy Action Forum will focus on frameworks and measurements to advance and evaluate holistic health interventions at workplaces, helping organizations to make a business case for investing in this space.
“Brain health and brain skills are going to be at the center of economic vitality and competitiveness in future, so CEOs are starting to understand that there is a competitive advantage and real value from investing in this space” says Erica Coe, McKinsey Health Institute’s Global Executive Director.
Building Brain Capital
In the past markets were dominated largely by trade of goods, today’s global economy combines manufacturing with the knowledge of how to trade, says a Brookings research paper “The brain economy is an extension on the concept that we live in a marketplace of ideas. Today’s economy is one in which most new jobs demand cognitive, emotional, and social—not manual—skills, and in which innovation is a tangible deliverable of employee productivity.”
Brain capital encompasses both brain health and brain skills as contributors to this brain economy. It is the currency of the brain economy, says the Brookings explainer. Advocates argue brain capital should be valued in the same way as gross domestic product (GDP) and road infrastructure.
So, what are the essential brain skills needed in the age of AI and how do we increase this ‘currency’? Ironically AI may weaken one of the important brain skills: critical thinking.
Recent studies, one conducted by MIT, another study last year published in Neuropsychology, an American Psychological Association journal, and studies from Microsoft, all found that if you heavily rely on generative AI like ChatGPT, your critical thinking ability is reduced, says Dong-Seon Chang, PhD, a neuroscientist based in South Korea working on a book about how more frequent interactions with AI will change our brains. The MIT study shows that when you write an essay, your brain connectivity is significantly lower when you compare a group relying on generative AI versus using just your own brain.
“Instead of always asking ChatGPT or generative AI, we need to be able to develop thoughts ourselves, and be able to critically evaluate knowledge ourselves, which needs time and training,” says Chang, a speaker on a panel about the brain economy moderated by The Innovator’s Editor-in-Chief at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China in June.
“We need to recognize today’s AI revolution, but at the same time also acknowledge how our brains work best,” says Chang. AI can now perform many cognitive tasks for us but just training employees to use AI tools for maximum efficiency would not be the right approach for our brains, he says. “Our brains haven’t changed anatomically in 300,000 years; the power of our brains grows when we connect with each other, and just substituting the human workforce with AI tools would risk isolation, mental‑health decline, and stagnation for our brains. Instead, we need to forge diverse collaborations across disciplines, cultures, and geographies, leveraging AI to connect minds, not replace them. By using AI to bring more people with diverse backgrounds into the fold—to learn, teach, and innovate together—we can unlock the next leap in our brain economy.”
Neuroscientists and tech entrepreneurs are teaming to experiment with different ways for people to expand their brain capital in the age of AI.
Like Chang, Torkel Klingberg, PhD, a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, is concerned about the impact of AI on people’s cognitive abilities. “Cognitive functions to a large extent are dependent on challenges,” he says. “If you take away the challenges because people become too dependent on AI we risk decreasing the cognitive development of children and young adults. We will need to work harder and smarter to stay sharp and find interventions that are low cost with a high return on investment.”
Improving Working Memory
Klingberg’s company, Cogmed, which is backed by Karolinksa’s Innovation Fund, has created a training program designed to address that challenge and it has a large, independent randomized controlled trial to support it claims. The company has developed a training app called Nuroe, based on its working memory training protocol, that aims to help children build focus, boost IQ, improve academic performance and even boost IQ.
Klingberg, who has won numerous scientific prizes and is a member of the Nobel Assembly and the scientific committee for the OECD “Future of Education and Skills 2030”, is focused on the development and plasticity of working memory, the capacity to hold and manipulate in real-time multiple units of information, which is necessary for complex operations and thinking. It is key for academic performance: for STEM subjects, particularly math, for reading comprehension and for self-organization.
Cogmed’s working memory training protocol was initially designed for children with attention deficit disorder. In 2011, behavioral economics researchers reached out to the company to ask for permission to use it as part of a large study in German schools on all types of students. They were testing the hypothesis that early education interventions focused on core mental capacity building such as attention and working memory can lead to substantial benefits in the middle and long-term. Cogmed shared its license at no cost, and the researchers conducted an independent study led by economist Ernst Fehr, PhD, at the University of Zurich, which was published in the Journal of Political Economy in February.
The study recruited 572 students in the first grade of primary school, aged 6–7, across 31 school classes in several schools in Germany, randomizing the classes into a control group (German and math classes in the regular curriculum) and an intervention group (Cogmed’s working memory training protocol: 35 minutes per day during 5 weeks– around 12.5 hours of training in total).Then they evaluated a range of outcomes directly after training, after six months, after one year, and after three years.
There were predictable improvements in working memory and closely related academic subjects such as geometry and in broader capacities such as IQ and inhibitory control. What surprised researchers was that those benefits compounded over time, culminating in a very significant real-world educational outcome three years after the intervention.
Essentially, by age 10–11 German students are assigned to one of three academic tracks based on their academic performance up to that time. In the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, where the study took place, around 30% of students are assigned to the Gymnasium, an academic track designed to lead into university access, with the remaining students assigned to a mixed track or to a non-academic track.
When the researchers completed the three- year follow-up they found that 46% of the children who received the working memory training were placed in the Gymnasium track — significantly above the regional average. This 16 percentage point increase represents a more than 50% relative boost in the likelihood of entering the most advanced secondary school track, a difference with significant long-term consequences.
Around half of the increase came from students who otherwise would have accessed the mixed track and half from non-academic track. Each track has huge implications in life: the study references how, on average, individuals in the academic track will, when joining the labor market, earn 54%–73% higher wages than those in the non-academic track, and 22%–34% higher wages than those in the mixed track, reinforcing the need for early interventions to boost educational and career opportunities,
Other studies have shown that working memory training can improve cognition in adults, including those in their 60s and 70s, says Klingberg, who is co-authoring a book about why people should continue to learn in the age of AI.
More than 120 peer-reviewed studies have confirmed the benefits of working memory training, says Hoa Ly, CEO of Stockholm-based Cogmed, the developer of the Cogmed working memory protocol and the Nuroe app. One of them involved public school students in Sweden who raised their grade averages after completing working memory training. The cost of the training is $300 per student, including training of the teachers to implement the program, says Ly. Getting all public schools to adopt the technology “is too slow,” he says, so Cogmed has launched the Nuroe app to help parents do this with their kids at home. The app, which is designed for children aged 6-18, is available globally via the App Store and Google Play and is free to test for 14 days and then costs €9.99 a month.
The Importance of Preventative Action
In addition to interventions to improve skills, preventative actions need to be taken to promote positive brain health as early as when babies are still in the womb and all throughout childhood, says the McKinsey Health Institute’s Enomoto, studies show that more than half of the brain’s synaptic connections are formed by age 3. Early investments such as stimulating activities, proper nutrition and positive social interactions can build strong foundation for cognitive and emotional resilience. For example, up to 75% of all energy absorbed from food is consumed by the brain during this period.
Threats to healthy brain development also threaten this foundation as a child grows older. In contrast with other chronic illnesses, mental and substance-use disorder burden disproportionally affects young people, with 75% of mental disorders appearing by the age of 24. “Homes, education systems and workplaces offer the opportunity to strengthen this foundation to build and maintain brain capital across a person’s lifespan,” says an article published on the Forum’s website.
Brain health disorders — including mental, substance use and neurological disorders — contribute up to 15% of the global disease burden, greater than all cancers combined.
According to The Lancet Neurology neurological disorders are the second leading cause of premature death worldwide. This includes stroke, dementia, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, hydrocephalus (a build-up of fluid in the brain) and other chronic conditions. Consider the numbers:
- In 2019, stroke affected more than 100 million people, with 12 million new cases and an estimated $2 trillion in global economic impact.
- Traumatic brain injuries leave over 50 million people with lasting disabilities and cost the global economy around $400 billion annually.
- By 2030, brain disorders are projected to cost the global economy $16 trillion per year
Yet, despite those alarming numbers, in most countries the majority of people do not have access to effective brain health promotion, services and support.
A New Tool To Understand and Protect Brain Function
“One of the greatest challenges in advancing the brain economy, particularly in the context of AI and health innovation, is the lack of reliable, objective data about the brain itself,” Plinio Targa, CEO of Brazilian scale-up brain4care, a World Economic Forum 2025 Technology Pioneer, said in an interview with The Innovator. “It remains the least monitored vital organ, limiting prevention, early intervention, and informed decision-making across sectors. We believe that closing this data gap is critical.”
Brain4care is aiming to help close that gap. It has developed the ability to monitor intracranial dynamics non-invasively and in real time. This previously inaccessible physiological vital sign offers new possibilities for how healthcare systems and the scientific community approach neurological care, prevention and policy, says Targa.
Brain4care’s technology makes it possible to access and interpret intracranial pressure (ICP) waveform data to give a graphic representation and understanding of pressure fluctuations within the skull. These waveforms reflect how the brain responds to changes in intracranial volume and pressure. By tracking these waveform patterns over time, clinicians and researchers gain insight into how the brain is functioning before clinical symptoms emerge, Targa says. Artificial intelligence (AI) adds a new layer to this capability, he says, because algorithms can analyze the ICP waveform morphology and extract clinically relevant neurological parameters.
Brain4care’s technology has been evaluated in more than 110 publications, including studies on stroke, dementia, traumatic brain injuries and hydrocephalus, and is clinically validated and approved by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Brazilian regulatory agency ANVISA, according to Targa.
Because it does not rely on expensive or invasive infrastructure, the Brazilian scale-up’s technology can be used in remote, low-resource or underserved settings, supporting efforts to reduce global health disparities in neurological care.
“Brain4care’s contribution is not intended to replace traditional methods, but to make visible what has remained hidden: the early physiological shifts that precede neurological decline,” Targa wrote in an article published by the Forum. “By bringing this vital sign into clinical and research practice, we take a step closer to preventing disability instead of reacting to it. This is not just a medical innovation. It’s an opportunity to rethink how we care for the brain as individuals, institutions and as a global society.”
Unlocking Human Potential at Scale
“We are having a neuroscience renaissance,” says McKinsey Health Institute’s Coe. “We know so much more than we did five-ten years ago but there is a lot of evidence-based science that is not yet being applied at scale. There is an opportunity to bring new players into the space and act as a catalyst for investment.”
The Brain Economy Action Forum’s goal is to help countries, regions and companies take up the challenge of advancing the brain economy by investing in improving brain skills and preventative care, says Enomoto. The potential upside is huge, she says, resulting not just in economic growth but “unlocking human potential at scale.”
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