Conference Theme

Wired for Well-being: Advancing Health Promotion Through Neuroscience and Whole Person Health

This year’s conference theme Wired for Well-being focuses on leveraging our growing understanding about how the brain works to create new approaches to whole person well-being. Neuroscience aims to understand how our brain and nervous system enables us to think, feel, behave, and regulate bodily functions. Understanding these connections can help us design interventions and create environments that promote healthier behaviors and better support well-being.

 For example, neuroscience helps us understand how and why exposure to nature or the creative arts supports healing and connection; how we can design our environments to support healthy habits; how mindfulness supports resilience and mental health; and how connecting to our purpose and values fuels intrinsic motivation for selfcare. It also helps us better understand how the bodies’ systems work together (e.g., how our understanding of the brain-gut connection informs new approaches to healthy eating).

 Neuroscience does more than explain the science of the brain — it informs new ways of caring for ourselves, our communities, and each other. As the world becomes more complex, this brain-based knowledge is essential for building healthier systems that help everyone thrive.

 Sessions at the 2026 Art & Science of Health Promotion Conference will aim to share how neuroscience is shaping new approaches to emerging and longstanding issues in the health promotion field (e.g., loneliness, obesity, mental health, sustainable behavior change), as well as bring the latest thinking around core dimensions of a whole person approach to well-being (financial, physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions).

 We aim to include sessions that feature:

• Health promotion fundamentals including marketing, communication, measurement and evaluation, and systems or culture change
• Practical applications of neuroscience in health promotion which address multiple dimensions of well-being (e.g., physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual)
• Health promotion case studies demonstrating how interventions work across sectors and settings, from schools to workplaces to retirement communities
• Emerging research and science informing the health promotion industry