On January 28, 2026, over 150 community members gathered at UBC Robson Square for Reimagining the Mind: Innovations in Mental Health Research and Care — an evening exploring how brain stimulation, digital technologies and innovative imaging approaches are reshaping the future of mental health.
Presented in partnership with UBC’s Office of Community Engagement, the event featured three experts from the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health whose work spans cutting-edge treatment, technology ethics and pediatric brain research.
Recharging the brain: The promise of TMS
Dr. Fidel Vila-Rodriguez opened the evening with a fascinating overview of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a non-invasive therapy that uses electromagnetic pulses to modulate specific areas of the brain. TMS is used to treat various psychiatric disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and dementia.
“If the brain is an electric organ, it only makes sense that to speak its language, we use electricity, or energy,” he explained.
Using the metaphor of a wireless smartphone charger, Dr. Vila-Rodriguez described how a coil placed on the head generates magnetic pulses to stimulate underactive neurons and “recharge the brain.”
In one study of people with depression, his team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe the brain during the patient’s first TMS session. Although stimulation targeted a specific region, researchers observed changes in activity across distributed brain circuits and networks. These changes were strongly linked to whether patients later experienced symptom improvement.
Dr. Vila-Rodriguez noted that many mental health conditions are not caused by a single malfunctioning area in the brain, instead resulting from disrupted networks. TMS treatment acts as a gateway, stimulating one specific location to influence broader brain circuits.
Despite being approved by Health Canada in 2002, TMS treatment is not yet available in BC’s public healthcare system. This highlights ongoing policy and access gaps around a treatment that is considered safe, effective and cost-efficient for conditions such as treatment-resistant depression.
The positive and negative sides of mental health technology
Dr. Julie Robillard shifted the conversation to another powerful force shaping mental health today: technology.
With one in five Canadian youth experiencing a mental illness, long wait times and inequities in care are pushing many people to seek support online. Dr. Robillard noted that roughly half of queries to generative AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini relate to companionship and loneliness.
Her research explores why people turn to emerging technologies such as AI chatbots, mental health apps and even social robots, and weighs both the benefits and drawbacks of these tools. On the positive side, she noted that many of these tools are free or low-cost, available 24/7 and offer non-judgmental spaces where people can seek support and connect with others who share similar experiences. However, she cautioned that there are significant downsides, including privacy risks, cybersecurity concerns, exposure to harmful content and the potential for emotional dependence.
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” she reminded the audience, as “free” often means paying with your data. She also pointed to more troubling emerging risks, such as AI-induced delusions and emotional manipulation, underscoring the need for thoughtful oversight and personal reflection when using these technologies.
“What I always tell people when we talk about AI and mental health technologies is to reflect on your values and see how that maps onto your technology usage,” she said.
Because apps are designed to maximize engagement, using them in ways that truly support wellbeing requires a conscious effort. At the societal level, she emphasized the need for more research and stronger policies to guide ethical AI development and governance.
Movies in the magnet: Studying the brain at work
Dr. Tamara Vanderwal concluded the evening by introducing a creative and innovative approach to studying child psychiatric disorders: movie-based functional MRI.
Traditional brain scans often measure resting activity, but Dr. Vanderwal wants to study the brain in action. She compared her approach to a cardiac stress test.
“When you go to the clinic, you don’t just sit there during the test,” she explained. “You get on a treadmill and run or hike, because clinicians want to see your heart working.”
Similarly, movies act as a stimulus that engage emotion and attention, allowing researchers to observe the brain while it is actively processing complex, real-world information.
Using this method, her lab studies youth with and without different conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. By analyzing “functional connectomes,” which are maps of how different brain regions communicate, and applying predictive AI models, her team can identify patterns linked to psychiatric symptoms.
One breakthrough involves precision mapping, where instead of averaging brain scans across large groups, researchers can now build detailed, person-specific brain maps. This approach recognizes that while brains share common organizational patterns, individuals differ significantly in anatomy and connectivity.
She is also the founder of Headspace Studios, which creates purpose-built films to evoke specific neural processes inside the scanner, blending art and science to study the developing brain.
An engaged audience
The Q&A session reflected strong public interest in the future of mental health care. Questions ranged from how quickly patients see changes with TMS, to whether brain scans can predict treatment response, to why access remains limited in BC.
Audience members also raised ethical questions about AI, implicit bias in programming emerging tools and technologies, and whether social robots might reduce or deepen social isolation.
Looking ahead
Reimagining the Mind highlighted both remarkable progress and ongoing challenges in mental health care. From modulating brain circuits to mapping emotional responses to films, researchers are developing new, personalized tools that offer hope for understanding and treating psychiatric disorders.
Stay tuned for the third event in our UBC Connects at Robson Square series in April, which will be focused on the theme of brain injury and repair.
