Center for Healthy Minds

The Center for Healthy Minds conducts research on wellbeing, the neuroscience of wellbeing, and how contemplative practices such as meditation affect the brain. Its interdisciplinary work draws on psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, education, humanities, genetics, molecular biology, and economics. Researchers study wellbeing across the human lifespan and in settings that include classrooms, hospitals, justice-involved populations, and contemplative communities. The center also connects laboratory science with real-world applications, including meditation-based interventions and digital wellbeing supports. In collaboration with the nonprofit Humin, it contributes to the Healthy Minds Program app, which serves as a wellbeing resource and a platform for scientific discovery. The center was founded in 2009 and is located on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in Madison.