The mission of the Brain and Creativity Institute is to gather new knowledge about the human emotions, decision-making, memory, and communication, from a neurological perspective, and to apply this knowledge to the solution of problems in the biomedical and sociocultural arenas.

• The Institute was founded by Antonio Damasio and Hanna Damasio in 2006 and is a unit of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California.
• The Institute uses state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques (e.g. advanced magnetic resonance scanning), and cognitive, psychophysiological, and psychophysical techniques as well as techniques developed in interaction with filmmakers and social scientists, among others.
• Although the ultimate goals of the Institute’s research feature biomedical and sociocultural applications prominently, all of its projects hinge on the interaction of neurocognitive, sociocultural, and biomedical phenomena.