The anatomy of the human brain inspired architect and engineering firm Page Southerland Page for the design of the Brain Performance Institute. Brain training rooms, event spaces and other clinical offerings will be in an elliptical, three-story glass structure connected to a rectangular building filled with administrative offices. See a preview in this video.
The Brain Performance Institute is getting its own home — a new 62,000-square-foot facility that will bring together the latest research and training techniques designed to improve cognitive skills and health.
On Wednesday, UT Dallas’ Center for BrainHealth will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the institute’s building, which is expected to open in spring 2017 in Dallas. The new facility will be built in the empty parking lot adjacent to the Center for BrainHealth near Mockingbird Lane and Harry Hines Boulevard in Dallas.
“The Brain Performance Institute will be the first facility of its kind — not an acute treatment center, but a place where healthy people as well as people who have sustained a brain injury or disease have the opportunity to help their brain become healthier, more efficient and less stressed,” said Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, founder and chief director of the Center for BrainHealth, and Dee Wyly Distinguished University Chair in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
In the past two years, the institute has served more than 40,000 people at the Center for BrainHealth and via mobile training teams. Clients have ranged from professional athletes and executives to military veterans and teens.
The new facility will offer BrainHealth physicals, virtual reality training programs for teens and adults on the autism spectrum, as well as other learning tools, and host events featuring experts from around the world, said Eric Bennett, executive director of the institute.
Page Southerland Page, a leading international architecture and engineering firm based in Dallas, drew inspiration for the building’s design from the anatomy of the human brain, specifically the frontal lobes. Brain training rooms, event spaces and other clinical offerings will be in an elliptical, three-story glass structure connected to a rectangular building filled with administrative offices.
“Bringing the latest in new brain research adds a whole new dimension to health care,” UT System Chancellor William H. McRaven said. “The Center for BrainHealth with its Brain Performance Institute is on a trajectory to make significant advancements in the way we care for our brain health as individuals nationally and globally. We are proud to be able to showcase this translational research model as another defining asset to the UT System.”
The institute was established in 2013 to deliver programs and resources developed and tested at the Center for BrainHealth. The center has more than 75 funded, ongoing research studies that focus on topics ranging from healthy aging and teen reasoning to autism, Alzheimer’s and bipolar disorder, as well as concussions, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction.
“It is exciting to know that this is just the beginning. Advancements in brain health are growing rapidly,” said Debbie Francis, Center for BrainHealth advisory board chair. “We cannot even imagine the types of treatments and programs that will be offered 10 years, even five years, from now.”
“We must continue to be transformative as incremental or minimal gains are no longer acceptable,” Chapman said. “We will engage the best minds across the globe and continue to work relentlessly toward the noble goal of better brain health for all.”