Welcome to the Healthy Brain Project

The Healthy Brain Project has now closed.

For more information, please see our announcement by clicking on the News tab. Thank you for your support and engagement over the years.
If you are interested in learning about our new initative, the Healthy Brain Hub, please fill in this form and we will get in touch with you.
If you have any questions, please contact our research team at healthybrainproject@monash.edu.
LOGIN

LATEST NEWS

user

The Healthy Brain Project is Closing Down

After eight years, the time has arrived for the Healthy Brain Project to come to an end. It certainly is the end of an era. We would first like to thank all our participants for your hard work and dedication over the years. The Healthy Brain Project was the first study of our research program, led by Associate Professor Yen Ying Lim. Results from the Healthy Brain Project have helped us advance understanding of the many different factors that may influence aging, cognition and dementia risk in midlife and have enabled us to obtain additional funding to further our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease. Thank you for coming on this journey with us, for being so engaged and generous with your time and efforts, and for joining us in this fight against dementia.

Page 1 of 5

user

What Happens Next

From the 15th of November 2024, Healthy Brain Project accounts will be restricted. This means that you will no longer be able to complete any surveys or memory and thinking tests and you will no longer receive emails to complete your yearly assessments. You will, however, still be able to log into your account for a limited amount of time. Once we have wrapped up the Healthy Brain Project, our team will prepare a final feedback report for each of you based on your most recent assessment. As these reports are personalised, they take our team some time to prepare so you may expect to receive your report in February 2025. Once the reports are uploaded to your Healthy Brain Project accounts, we will send an email to let you know. You will then have three months to access and download your report from your account until your account is deactivated. If you are not able to download your report within that time or have any questions, please email us at healthybrainproject@monash.edu.

Page 2 of 5

user

Introducing the Healthy Brain Hub

We are very excited to introduce our new initiative, the Healthy Brain Hub, funded by the Medical Research Future Fund. We hope to take all the lessons we learned about conducting memory testing online from the Healthy Brain Project, and apply them to the real world. The Healthy Brain Hub aims to determine whether conducting brain health assessments online, either self-administered like in the Healthy Brain Project or via telehealth, can help identify people in the community who may be experiencing memory and thinking difficulties.

Page 3 of 5

user

Introducing the Healthy Brain Hub

If you sign up to the Healthy Brain Hub, you and your GP will receive a report with outcomes of your brain health assessment, including the results of any memory and thinking testing that we do. We are interested in whether the information obtained through these brain health assessments are useful and helpful to you and your doctor, in informing ongoing care. It is important to note, however, that we will not be providing you with a diagnosis of dementia, mild cognitive impairment, or any other cognitive or memory-related condition. Instead, we will be providing some information about your brain health that might help your doctor rule in or rule out some of these conditions. If you are interested in joining the Healthy Brain Hub, please fill in this form or email healthybrainhub@monash.edu.

Page 4 of 5

user

Thank you

Thank you again for your participation in the Healthy Brain Project. We hope you’ve enjoyed your time with us as much as we’ve enjoyed having you. We hope you will continue on with us at the Healthy Brain Hub, but if not, thank you for your trust in our team over these past few years. If you have any questions, please contact us at healthybrainproject@monash.edu.

Page 5 of 5

(swipe left to read more news items)

WHO WE ARE

The Healthy Brain Project is supported by generous grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council, the Alzheimer’s Association International Research Grant Program, the Dementia Australia Research Foundation, and the Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation.

YEN YING LIM

YEN YING LIM

B.A., B.App.Sci (Hons), M.Psych, Ph.D.

Yen Ying is the primary investigator of the Healthy Brain Project and an Associate Professor at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health (School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University). Her research interests include understanding genetic and lifestyle factors that may accelerate or protect against brain diseases, and developing digital cognitive tools to better detect brain diseases. Her work is supported by the NHMRC, Dementia Australia, the Department of Health and Human Services (Victoria), and the Alzheimer’s Association (USA).

RACHEL BUCKLEY

RACHEL BUCKLEY

B.Sc (Hons), Ph.D.

Rachel is a lead investigator of the Healthy Brain Project and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School (USA) and the University of Melbourne (Australia). Her research interests focus on early detection of dementia, specifically in understanding sex differences in risk for Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers, and in the importance of subjective concerns of memory decline in the earliest stages of disease. Her work is supported by the National Institutes of Health (National Institute of Aging K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award), the Alzheimer’s Association, and the Women’s Brain Initiative at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Common Questions

Learn more about the Healthy Brain Project

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THIS PROJECT?

Our main goal was to track a large group of middle-aged Australians over time in order to learn more about what makes people more or less likely to develop dementia later in life. We aimed to improve understanding of how factors like brain biology, genes, psychology, lifestyle and general health and wellbeing might influence how dementia begins. The Healthy Brain Project was also one of the first studies to conduct entirely online and remote memory and thinking assessments, so another important objective for us was to evaluate the usability and validity of this novel mode of research. Through our use of online memory and thinking assessments and surveys, our participants were able to participate in the study whenever and wherever suited them best.

HOW DID THE HEALTHY BRAIN PROJECT WORK?

Each year, our participants were invited to complete a series of online memory and thinking tests, and fill out surveys that asked about lifestyle, mood, personality, medical history and demographic information. Participants were also asked to provide a saliva sample so that we could obtain genetic information. To facilitate this process on a national scale, self-sampling saliva kits were sent out and returned to us via traditional mail.

HOW IS PARTICIPANT DATA USED?

Data collected through the Healthy Brain Project is used to investigate relationships between cognition and genetic, demographic, health and lifestyle factors that were measured in our assessments. Our researchers and research students investigate specific relationships through statistical data analysis. The findings from these analyses are then published in research articles in scientific journals. If you’re interested in reading any publications that have emerged from the Healthy Brain Project, please don’t hesitate to contact our team (healthybrainproject@monash.edu). During the study, we also prepared a yearly report for each participant summarising the information they’d provided to us in their surveys. Our intention with these reports was to give back to our participants by providing them with the opportunity to track their own health and lifestyle markers over time. We also wanted to demonstrate that our work isn’t simply a ‘black box’, but rather a valuable interaction between scientist and volunteer.

I WAS A PARTICIPANT IN THE HEALTHY BRAIN PROJECT. WHAT HAPPENS TO MY DATA NOW THAT THE STUDY IS OVER?

We will continue to store your de-identified data securely on Monash University servers for a minimum of five years. This data will continue to contribute to helping advance research into midlife risk and protective factors for dementia and may be included in future scientific publications. Once data analysis has concluded, the data will be destroyed. If you are interested in continuing to receive updates about our research which may include findings from the Healthy Brain Project and our other studies, then please fill in this form and we will ensure that you remain on our mailing list.

WHICH INSTITUTIONS WAS THE HEALTHY BRAIN PROJECT CONNECTED TO, AND WHO WAS INVOLVED?

The Healthy Brain Project was established by Associate Professors Yen Ying Lim and Rachel Buckley while they were based at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health and the University of Melbourne. In 2020, the Healthy Brain Project moved to the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health in the School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University. We would like to acknowledge the support provided by the Florey Institute and the University of Melbourne from 2016 to 2020, and by the Turner Institute and Monash University from 2020 onwards. Our research continues to be monitored and ethically approved by Monash University (HREC: 26855).

I STILL WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN BRAIN HEALTH RESEARCH! WHAT OPTIONS DO I HAVE?

Our research group is launching a new initiative, the Healthy Brain Hub. The aim of this initiative is to investigate whether conducting brain health assessments online, either self-administered or via telehealth, can help identify people in the community who may be experiencing memory and thinking difficulties. If you sign up to the Healthy Brain Hub, you and your GP will receive a report with outcomes of your brain health assessment, including the results of any memory and thinking testing that we do. These reports will not provide participants with a diagnosis of dementia, as these diagnoses are only provided by a medical doctor after considering a range of information. Instead, we will provide some information about your brain health that might help your doctor rule in or rule out some of these conditions. We are interested in whether the information obtained through these brain health assessments are useful and helpful to you and your doctor in informing ongoing care. If you would like to sign up or learn more about the Healthy Brain Hub, please send us an email (healthybrainhub@monash.edu).

HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU FOR MORE INFORMATION?

If you have any additional questions for us, please send us an email at healthybrainproject@monash.edu. While the study has now formally concluded, this email address remains active and will be monitored on a semi-regular basis.