DULUTH (02/27/2026) — An international collaboration, co-led by a University of Minnesota Medical School researcher, has published a new paper in Alzheimer's & Dementia that opens in the same window synthesizing global evidence on the origins of dementia inequities in Indigenous communities and how community strengths can inform brain health research worldwide.
"Indigenous peoples are rarely included in brain health research, and when they are, there is little consideration of the remarkable strength within our communities," said Cliff Whetung, PhD, MSW , an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus and member of the Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team . "This study combines international perspectives on Indigenous dementia research and charts a path forward to a more diverse, community-centered approach to advancing brain health for everyone."
A growing body of international work shows that dementia risk in later life is the product of a constellation of risk and protective experiences across the lifespan. While many Indigenous communities appear to face elevated dementia risk, they also demonstrate important protective strengths, such as connection to land, strong social ties and cultural continuity, that likely confer neuroprotective benefits but are rarely incorporated into prevailing biomedical models.
By centering culture, social relationships and connection to land and community, the authors reframe brain health beyond conventional biomedical approaches and highlight cultural resilience as a powerful neuroprotective resource.
The group's key recommendations call for further development of Indigenous leadership in brain health research and broader use of locally tailored, culturally grounded approaches to advance lifelong brain health equity and strengths-based models of dementia care. Future work will focus on developing international, cross-disciplinary collaborations on brain health research driven directly by community needs.
This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Additional funding was provided by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Dementia Australia Research Foundation, the Alzheimer's Association, and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé.
