The core mission of the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) is to answer urgent questions about the human brain. Part of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and led by Director Arthur W. Toga, PhD, each year the Stevens INI presents their most promising findings to the community in a stunning, interactive digital report.

In 2022, Stevens INI researchers advanced several initiatives tackling how Alzheimer’s disease progresses, with an emphasis on addressing health disparities to create large-scale studies that are more reflective of the ethnic diversity in which we live. The team also initiated a project to investigate a new therapeutic candidate for Alzheimer’s disease and advanced research on the role that blood vessel dysfunction plays in the development of dementia.

In addition, faculty are involved in several projects partnering within USC and beyond to commercialize their discoveries in areas such as stroke rehabilitation, safer CT software, and augmented reality applications with the hope of impacting clinical care and providing researchers with vital tools and resources for the collective benefit of the field of neuroscience.

The 2022 annual report details new innovations in artificial intelligence, informatics, large-scale computational approaches and 3D visualization tools that continue to guide the understanding of the complex interplay among thousands of variables and potential biomarkers of neurological disease and psychiatric disorders. The report also details numerous collaborative global projects fueled by the Stevens INI’s immense repository of data.

This past year, faculty members began and continued several projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, the BRAIN Initiative, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the Milken Institute and its philanthropic partners, plus several private foundations. Projects range from neurodegenerative disorders to mental illnesses, neurorehabilitation, disordered eating, brain mapping, ultra-high field imaging, and more.

The Stevens INI’s 2022 annual report showcases a year of innovation, discovery, and continued progress on established studies. The interactive and animated report is available here.

— Sidney Taiko Sheehan