EAN Chair on Brain Health
Advancing Brain Health with Earlier Risk Identification
Since early 2025, EAN is supporting a Research Chair working to reduce the burden of neurological disorders by developing a EAN Brain Health Check to promote earlier identification of risk and support brain health.
Brain Health is a state in which every individual can realize their own abilities and optimize their cognitive, emotional, psychological and behavioural functioning to cope with life situations (WHO, 2022).
About this project
The burden of neurological disorders is estimated to be above 40% of the global burden of disease (Steinmetz et al., 2024). The reduction of the burden of neurological disorders is the mission of the EAN and its Brain Health Mission.
While some preventive actions have been shown to be effective, namely in reducing vascular risk factors, specific preventive factors and associated biomarkers for neurological disorders remain limited in quantity and quality.
A global, validated and generally accepted Brain Check is currently not available.
Our goals
This project seeks to contribute to the mission of EAN and the Brain Health Mission by establishing a Brain Health Chair at Ghent University (Belgium).
The specific aim of this project is to develop and validate an EAN Brain Health Check at the level of the general population and primary, secondary and tertiary care.
Project breakdown by work-package and area of application:
Research
Systematic literature review of existing and validated preventive strategies and brain health determinants.
Its primary research question is: In healthy adults, does physical activity, sleep, diet/nutrition, social interaction, mental activity, media consumption or other exposures serve as modifiable determinants of brain health?
Systematic literature review on existing biomarkers for common neurological disorders
Develop and execute a standardized brain health screening protocol, creating a large multi-layered dataset including (neuro)physiological, psychological and behavioural metrics.
Defining a draft brain check for
- 1. General (healthy) public;
- 2. General medicine patients;
- 3. General neurology patients;
- 4. Brain check specific for particular neurological disorders in a tertiary care setting.
Setting up and performing prospective feasibility and validation studies of the different brain health check versions.
Defining a final version of the EAN Brain Check:
- Defining and initiating European collaborations in different countries;
- Further testing on a larger scale in different countries;
- Dissemination of results of studies;
- Translation of the EAN Brain Health Check in different European languages;
- Active promotion of the EAN Brain Health Check during National Neurological Societies meetings and other relevant conferences.
Education and awareness
Yearly postgraduate course in neuroscience and brain health at Ghent University to stimulate lifelong learning and provide the next generation of brain health ambassadors.