The UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center, part of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, provides specialized care for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. The center also leads innovative research on brain aging and works with the community to promote brain health and awareness of memory disorders.
The Fein Memory and Aging Center brings together neurologists, neuropsychologists, neuroscientists, speech-language pathologists, genetic counselors, nurses, pharmacologists, social workers, research coordinators, technologists, and administrative staff. This multidisciplinary team approach supports comprehensive diagnosis, care, and research focused on neurodegenerative disease.
Collaboration is central to the center’s mission. Partnerships with academic institutions, community organizations, and research networks help advance scientific discovery and improve patient care. Some collaborations focus on long-term studies of disease progression, while others address targeted clinical or scientific questions.
Creativity and community engagement are also core to the center’s work. Several initiatives explore the connections between creativity, brain function, and neurodegenerative disease, bringing together patients, caregivers, clinicians, researchers, and artists.
Creative Minds: Brain Health and Community Creativity
Creative Minds connects brain health education with creative activities in communities across the San Francisco Bay Area. The program partners with community centers and clinics to develop culturally responsive programming informed by participants' linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Through art, storytelling, and other creative experiences, Creative Minds expands access to brain health education and helps communities learn about memory, aging, and neurological disease.
Artist in Residence Program: Art and Neuroscience
The Artist in Residence Program explores the relationship between art, creativity, and neuroscience. Artists collaborate with clinicians, researchers, patients, and caregivers to spark dialogue about how the brain shapes creative expression.
When the Fein Memory and Aging Center moved to UCSF’s Mission Bay campus in 2012, the center created Gallery 190, an exhibition space that brings art into a clinical and research environment. Rotating exhibitions encourage reflection on the connections between creativity, brain science, and human experience.
Music, Creativity, and Brain Science
Music, Creativity and Brain Science is a partnership to examine how music can reveal insights about the human brain. Researchers and collaborators study how musical creativity reflects brain function and how neurodegenerative diseases can influence musical abilities. This work highlights music as a powerful window into cognition, emotion, and the neural networks that support creativity.
Arborvitae: Arts and Literary Journal
Arborvitae, the arts and literary journal of the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center, celebrates the center's creative community. The journal features writing and visual art from patients, caregivers, clinicians, researchers, and staff. By sharing creative expression shaped by experiences with memory loss and neurological disease, Arborvitae highlights the role of creativity in connection, resilience, and healing.