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  • Perspective
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Global synergistic actions to improve brain health for human development

Nature Reviews Neurology volume 19, pages 371–383 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

The global burden of neurological disorders is substantial and increasing, especially in low-resource settings. The current increased global interest in brain health and its impact on population wellbeing and economic growth, highlighted in the World Health Organization’s new Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Epilepsy and other Neurological Disorders 2022–2031, presents an opportunity to rethink the delivery of neurological services. In this Perspective, we highlight the global burden of neurological disorders and propose pragmatic solutions to enhance neurological health, with an emphasis on building global synergies and fostering a ‘neurological revolution’ across four key pillars — surveillance, prevention, acute care and rehabilitation — termed the neurological quadrangle. Innovative strategies for achieving this transformation include the recognition and promotion of holistic, spiritual and planetary health. These strategies can be deployed through co-design and co-implementation to create equitable and inclusive access to services for the promotion, protection and recovery of neurological health in all human populations across the life course.

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Fig. 1: Interrelationships among the domains of health and wellbeing.
Fig. 2: Brain health in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Fig. 3: Developments in neurology and global initiatives propelling a ‘neurological revolution’.
Fig. 4: The neurological quadrangle.
Fig. 5: A global ecosystem to monitor and reduce the burden of neurological disorders.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to T. Dua of the WHO Brain Health Unit and other members of the WHO Brain Health Unit, WHO Rehabilitation 2030 Unit and Non-Communicable Diseases Department for their contributions to the manuscript. The authors are also grateful to all collaborators and scientific and patient associations for their support. M.O.O. is supported by SIREN (U54HG007479), SIBS Genomics (R01NS107900) and SIBS Gen Gen (R01NS107900‐02S1), ARISES (R01NS115944‐01), H3Africa CVD Supplement (3U24HG009780‐03S5), CaNVAS (1R01NS114045-01), Sub-Saharan Africa Conference on Stroke, SSACS (1R13NS115395-01A1) and Training Africans to Lead and Execute Neurological Trials and Studies, TALENTS, (D43TW012030). S.R.S. is supported in part by the ERC (NGBMI, 759370; TIMS, 101081905), the BMBF (SSMART, 01DR21025A; NEO, 13GW0483C; QHMI, 03ZU1110DD; QSHIFT, 01UX2211), as well as the Einstein Foundation Berlin (A-2019-558).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Genomic and Precision Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Mayowa O. Owolabi

  2. Neurology Unit, Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Mayowa O. Owolabi

  3. African Stroke Organization, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Mayowa O. Owolabi & Rufus O. Akinyemi

  4. World Federation for Neurorehabilitation, North Shields, UK

    Mayowa O. Owolabi, David C. Good, Volker Hoemberg & Stephanie Clarke

  5. Lebanese American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Mayowa O. Owolabi

  6. Blossom Specialist Medical Center, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Mayowa O. Owolabi

  7. Neurology, Public Health, Disability Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy

    Matilde Leonardi

  8. Neurology Department Inselspital — University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Claudio Bassetti

  9. European Academy of Neurology, Vienna, Austria

    Claudio Bassetti & Paul Boon

  10. European Federation of Neurological Associations, Brussels, Belgium

    Joke Jaarsma, Tadeusz Hawrot, Elizabeth Cunningham, Orla Galvin & Alexandra Heumber Perry

  11. Department of Neurology, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Akintomiwa I. Makanjuola & Joseph O. Yaria

  12. Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Rajinder K. Dhamija

  13. Department of Neurology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA

    Wuwei Feng

  14. John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Center, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK

    Volker Straub

  15. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Jennifer Camaradou

  16. One Neurology Initiative, Brussels, Belgium

    Jennifer Camaradou & Marijeta Mojasevic

  17. Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    David W. Dodick

  18. Atria Academy of Science and Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    David W. Dodick

  19. American Brain Foundation, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    David W. Dodick

  20. Tics and Tourette Across the Globe, Hannover, Germany

    Rosita Sunna

  21. Australian Clinical Psychology Association, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Rosita Sunna

  22. Department of Neurology, Apollo Specialty Hospitals, Nellore, India

    Bindu Menon

  23. Meningitis Research Foundation, Bristol, UK

    Claire Wright

  24. Alzheimer’s Disease International, London, UK

    Chris Lynch & Paola Barbarino

  25. Women’s Brain Project, Guntershausen, Switzerland

    Antonella Santuccione Chadha, Maria Teresa Ferretti & Anna Dé

  26. Department of Paediatric Neurology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Coriene E. Catsman-Berrevoets

  27. European Paediatric Neurology Society, Bolton, UK

    Coriene E. Catsman-Berrevoets, Kevin Rostasy & Sameer M. Zuberi

  28. Department of Non-Communicable Diseases, Ministry of Health, Nairobi, Kenya

    Muthoni Gichu

  29. Global Brain Health Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Muthoni Gichu

  30. Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences of the University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

    Cristina Tassorelli

  31. IRCCS C. Mondino Foundation Neurological Institute, Pavia, Italy

    Cristina Tassorelli

  32. International Headache Society, London, UK

    Cristina Tassorelli

  33. University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    David Oliver

  34. International Neuro-Palliative Care Society, Roseville, MN, USA

    David Oliver

  35. Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Klinikum Großhadern, Munich, Germany

    Walter Paulus

  36. International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Walter Paulus

  37. Amal Neuro Developmental Centres, Gudalur, India

    Ramla K. Mohammed

  38. Al Ameen Educational Trust, Gudalur, India

    Ramla K. Mohammed

  39. 37 Military Hospital, Accra, Ghana

    Augustina Charway-Felli

  40. African Academy of Neurology, Cape Town, South Africa

    Augustina Charway-Felli

  41. Department of Paediatric Neurology, Children’s Hospital Datteln, University Witten/Herdecke, Witten, Germany

    Kevin Rostasy

  42. National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Valery Feigin

  43. Migraine Association of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

    Audrey Craven

  44. Department of Paediatric Neurology and Critical Care, University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Ericka L. Fink

  45. Safar Center for Resuscitation Research, University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Ericka L. Fink

  46. Multiple Sclerosis International Federation, London, UK

    Peer Baneke, Anne Helme & Joanna Laurson-Doube

  47. National Autonomous University of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

    Marco T. Medina

  48. Pan-American Federation of Neurological Societies, Santiago de Chile, Chile

    Marco T. Medina

  49. HOMI Fundacion Hospital Paediatrico la Misericordia, Bogota, Colombia

    Juan David Roa

  50. Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Birgit Hogl

  51. World Sleep Society, Rochester, MN, USA

    Birgit Hogl & Allan O’Bryan

  52. Paracelsus-Elena Hospital, Kassel, Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Centre, Goettingen, Germany

    Claudia Trenkwalder

  53. Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Jo Wilmshurst

  54. International Child Neurology Association, London, UK

    Jo Wilmshurst

  55. Neuroscience and Ageing Research Unit, Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Rufus O. Akinyemi

  56. Department of Neurology, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA

    David C. Good

  57. SRH Neurorehabilitation Hospital Bad Wimpfen, Bad Wimpfen, Germany

    Volker Hoemberg

  58. Department of Neurology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium

    Paul Boon

  59. Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Samuel Wiebe

  60. International League Against Epilepsy, Flower Mound, TX, USA

    Samuel Wiebe & J. Helen Cross

  61. Clinical Neurosciences Section, UCL Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK

    J. Helen Cross

  62. Cohen Veterans Bioscience, New York, NY, USA

    Magali Haas

  63. Brain Health Nexus, New York, NY, USA

    Inez Jabalpurwala

  64. Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Monica DiLuca

  65. European Brain Council, Brussels, Belgium

    Monica DiLuca

  66. Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Stephanie Clarke

  67. Paediatric Neurosciences Research Group, School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Sameer M. Zuberi

  68. Department of Medicine, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria

    Paul Olowoyo

  69. Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria

    Paul Olowoyo

  70. College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Ayomide Owolabi

  71. Department of Neurosurgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, NC, USA

    Nelson Oyesiku

  72. World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies, Prague, Czech Republic

    Nelson Oyesiku & Franco Servadei

  73. Department of Clinical Sciences/Diagnostic Radiology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Pia C. Maly-Sundgren

  74. Department of Clinical Sciences/Neurology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Bo Norrving

  75. Clinical Neurotechnology Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Charité Campus Mitte, Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Surjo R. Soekadar

  76. Department of Neurology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Pieter A. van Doorn

  77. Peripheral Nerve Society, Roseville, MN, USA

    Pieter A. van Doorn & Richard Lewis

  78. Department of Neurology, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Richard Lewis

  79. Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Tom Solomon

  80. Encephalitis Society, Malton, North Yorkshire, UK

    Tom Solomon

  81. Department of Neurosurgery, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center — IRCCS, Humanitas University, Milan, Italy

    Franco Servadei

Authors
  1. Mayowa O. Owolabi
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Contributions

M.O.O., A.I.M. and M.L. wrote the first draft. All authors reviewed and approved the final draft of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mayowa O. Owolabi.

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Competing interests

All authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

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Nature Reviews Neurology thanks A. Ranta and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Related links

ERA-NET NEURON: https://www.neuron-eranet.eu/

Human Brain Project: https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/

NIH BRAIN Initiative: https://braininitiative.nih.gov/

One Health Initiative: https://www.who.int/health-topics/one-health#tab=tab_1

The Human Connectome: https://www.humanconnectome.org/

Women’s Brain Project: https://www.womensbrainproject.com/publications/

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Owolabi, M.O., Leonardi, M., Bassetti, C. et al. Global synergistic actions to improve brain health for human development. Nat Rev Neurol 19, 371–383 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-023-00808-z

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