Invited Symposium 3 - Effectuating Societal Impact via Cognitive Neuroscience

Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm PDT, Salon ABCD

Chairs: Marian Berryhill¹, Micah Murray²; ¹University of Nevada, Reno, ²University of Lausanne
Presenters: Robert Knight, Marc Berman, Meike Ramon, Anjali Nursimulu

Scientists, including cognitive neuroscientists, have a societal obligation to generate knowledge, but also to disseminate it and steward its application toward the common good. This invited symposium addresses the successes and challenges of implementing research findings across domains such as education, urban planning, public policy, and security. During the first half of the symposium, each invited speaker will deliver a brief overview of their work as well as the outlook for scalability in contemporary society. The second half will be dedicated to a moderated roundtable discussion both between the panelists and the audience.

Presentations

Frontiers for Young Minds: Kids say the Darndest Things

Robert Knight¹; ¹University of California, Berkeley

Frontiers for Young Minds is a global effort to engage young kids (8-15) with science. Kids learn the scientific method by reviewing papers submitted by active scientists with mentoring by a PhD, Post-Doc or scientist. The kids submit a review commenting on the hypothesis, the research plan, the results and the conclusions of the paper and authors have to revise the article addressing the kid’s input. There are 1800 published articles covering eight areas including Human Health, Astronomy and Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Economics, Neuroscience and Psychology, Biodiversity, Earth Sciences and Engineering, Technology and AI. The journal has 60 million article views and 12 million regular users and, Importantly, is open access with no page costs assuring that scientists and kids from any country can afford to publish in and have access to Frontiers for Young Minds. We also have a collection of articles from 34 Nobel Laureates focused on their career and seminal contributions reviewed by kids with more to come. The Nobel Laureate’s efforts to teach the next generation has been well received with 320 million social media impacts and 2.5 million article views. Frontiers for Young Minds succeeds on three levels, kids are empowered, mentors provide public outreach and the authors have to make their work understandable to kids and by inference the general population. And the kids can be pretty direct in their reviews as you will see in some of their comments!

Environmental Neuroscience

Marc Berman¹; ¹University of Chicago

The field of environmental neuroscience examines the bi-directional relationships between brains and the physical environment. Here I will briefly present theory and empirical work for how interacting with more natural environments can improve cognitive performance, how more populated cities have lower rates of depression and implicit racial biases, and how exposure to poorer air quality is related to worsened cognitive development. I will discuss each of these findings from a broader environmental neuroscience perspective and how we can model the effects of the physical environment on brain and behavior. The goal is to try to use this work to improve human well-being at very large-scales.

Cognitive neuroscience for and in society––Lessons from Face (Re)Cognition

Meike Ramon¹; ¹Bern University of Applied Sciences

My talk will draw on two decades of research into the neural and cognitive mechanisms of face identity processing to illustrate how discoveries in cognitive neuroscience can both inform and be informed by society. I will trace my journey as a scholar who began with fundamental questions about how the brain encodes and recognizes faces and gradually expanded toward applied collaborations with the public sector. These have ranged from clinical assessments in individuals with face perception difficulties, to advising on issues of security and identity verification, to contributing insights on trust, bias, and social interaction in everyday life. Through these experiences, I will highlight both the opportunities and challenges of translating laboratory-based findings into real-world impact. The aim is not only to share lessons from face (re)cognition as a case study, but also to reflect more broadly on how cognitive neuroscience can responsibly engage with societal needs—by balancing rigor and relevance, while anticipating future challenges and working in dialogue with policymakers and practitioners.

Beyond Silos: A Systems Approach to Cognitive Health and Longevity

Anjali Nursimulu¹; ¹B Lab Switzerland

Advances in cognitive neuroscience, combined with digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI), are transforming what is possible, from lab insights to real-world prevention and rehabilitation. But technology alone will not shift society. Just as the brain is a connected network, progress depends on connecting our institutions. This talk draws on an innovative national platform to show how cross-sector partnerships can turn neuroscience into societal impact, with examples ranging from sleep disorders and workplace mental health to integrated care pathways, scaling what works from regional pilots to national practice.