Untangling Hair Bias in Brain Science: What our hair has to do with Brain Science

From EEGs to hair cortisol sampling, some of the most common methods in neuroscience and psychophysiological research can become surprisingly complicated when researchers encounter our tightly coiled hair, thick hair, or protective styles. And that’s not just an inconvenience.

When the technology doesn’t work for us, we can be left out of the research entirely. That means fewer Black women represented in the science shaping how we understand mental health, brain health, aging, and disease.

So, what should we be doing about this? Today, I’m joined by Dr.

Courtney Louis , a Harvard University clinical and research postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Ammon-Pinizzotto Center for Women’s Mental Health. Dr.

Louis is an emerging scholar whose research explores the connections between anxiety, ovarian hormones, cognition, and physiological processes—with a particular interest in advancing more equitable research for Black communities. Click here for more information about this episode.