The Neurosurgeon Who Believes the Brain Is Just the Beginning: Dr. Amir Vokshoor and the Radical Vision of the Institute of Neuro Innovation (INI)
Written by The Beverly Weekly Staff Most people think of a neurosurgeon as someone who works strictly inside the operating room. A scalpel in hand, spine exposed, fixing what’s broken.
Dr. Amir Vokshoor, and his NSG partner Dr. Jared Ament, are not like most traditional neurosurgeons.
A board-certified neurosurgeon based in Santa Monica, Vokshoor has spent nearly two decades pushing the boundaries of traditional brain and spine care. But it’s his groundbreaking philosophy, what he and Dr. Ament refer to as ‘Integrative Neurosurgery,’ that’s turning heads across medicine, performance science, and even consciousness research.
“The nervous system defines us, our happiness and joy as well as our pain and suffering,” says Dr. Vokshoor. “From the earliest days of my training I wanted to expand our services beyond the operating room and truly empower our patients with a multimodal approach to healing before and after their surgery.”
That multimodal approach led to the founding of the Institute of Neuro Innovation (INI), a nonprofit dedicated to applied neuroscience. Alongside their clinical practice at the Neurosurgery & Spine Group (NSG), a premier surgical and spine care center they co-founded, Dr. Vokshoor and Dr. Ament are pioneering a model where research, innovation, and patient care inform and elevate one another.
At NSG, the duo was also the first in the world to develop the groundbreaking 360° Arthroplasty, a minimally invasive technique that restores spinal motion by addressing both the front and back of the spine in a single surgery, offering patients improved mobility, faster recovery, and better long-term outcomes. This is done by combining lumbar artificial disc replacement with posterior facet replacement devices.
But for Vokshoor, the mission is also deeply personal.
“As a neurosurgeon, I have experienced the most challenging life-threatening situations that cause ‘states of disconnection’ within the human brain,” he shares. “This condition, Alzheimer’s disease, unravels a human being from within like no other, and that is why it felt like a call to action!”
His father’s battle with Alzheimer’s was the catalyst behind INI’s founding. And it’s what continues to drive his pursuit of not just surgical solutions, but whole-system healing.
“Redefining the health of the human nervous system as a function of the quality of its connections within the human body and environment at large.”
That word, connections, comes up often in Vokshoor’s work. Whether he's restoring spinal mobility through motion-preserving surgery or studying the impact of virtual reality on chronic pain, his core belief is that healing starts with integration.
“Life is motion!” he says. “When we restore the spinal motion segments to their natural state… we are not only treating the pain of nerve damage; we are reversing spinal aging… and optimizing mechanisms in a way to change the trajectory of someone’s life for the better!”
INI’s research spans everything from spinal implants and stem cells to immersive technologies and deep meditation. It’s what Vokshoor calls applied neuroscience, science that doesn’t just explore, but heals.
“Our research highlights the interconnected brain, spine, skin, gut, immune system,” he explains. “This is specifically tested around complex spine surgery and naturally expanded to the other ‘four horsemen’ of the nervous system.”
As part of its ongoing efforts to bring experts together across disciplines, INI once again just hosted its annual Constellations Symposium & Gala on April 26 at The Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica. Themed “Connecting the Expanded Nervous System,” the event featured pioneering discussions on motion preservation, virtual reality, neuroregenerative research, and the future of brain optimization.
At the heart of the ecosystem is Neurovella, INI’s sister organization described as a kind of “brain observatory.” It captures EEG waveforms, eye tracking, and real-time neural feedback to explore consciousness, performance, and recovery.
“Neurovella empowers its clients (and our patients) to access the energy of their nervous system and explore it beyond ordinary conscious states, for purposes of healing.”
This integrative lens extends beyond high-tech tools. Vokshoor believes that the future of neuroscience also lies in age-old practices like sleep hygiene, nutrition, and mindset training.
“Surgical stress is a complicated physiologic process,” he explains. “My goal is to prime the body’s defenses… and that requires integrative thinking, from mindset to sleep hygiene to nerve healing as a result of the metabolic nuances of gut health!”
His approach has earned him a reputation not just as a physician, but a kind of bridge-builder, one who’s working to dissolve the outdated silos between Western medicine and holistic health.
“We need better solutions for a myriad of problems from chronic pain to brain aging,” he says. “Society at large is justifiably frustrated by the silos we operate in. There are many nontraditional methods that have shown promise… and we want to bring these to light with utmost scientific integrity.”
For Vokshoor, this vision is as much spiritual as it is scientific. Even the name INI is layered with meaning.
“Yes, the synonym literally means ‘We’ as opposed to ‘I alone,’” he says. “I have always wanted to unify experts and stakeholders and the public at large under the organization to achieve our ambitious goals.”
It's a collective philosophy that shows up in INI’s partnerships across academia, healthcare, and even the arts. Vokshoor is a passionate believer that art and neuroscience are more connected than most realize.
“Medicine and especially neuroscience share a very special bond with artistic creativity,” he notes. “Many works of art at INI events have an underlying neuroscientific theme. Art and science are ever more related in this neurogenic age!”
Still, for all the grand ideas, Vokshoor insists that transformation begins with simple, daily actions. He teaches patients and staff a personal acronym, MNESPi, as a guide for sustainable brain health: “Mentation: check in… Nutrition… Exercise… Sleep… Pain: body scan, mind scan… What are my pain points? Observe them. Lean in…”
It’s that grounded, whole-human approach that’s made Dr. Amir Vokshoor a quiet revolutionary in the world of brain health. Through INI, Neurovella, NSG, and his evolving framework of Integrative Neurosurgery, he’s not just treating disease—he’s redefining what healing even means.
“We consider INI as an original idea because its methods are connecting concepts such as VR and deep meditation to pain, or brain mapping and spine surgery,” he says. “Also, it’s an independent, non-political, non-religious, unbiased, unaffiliated public org.”
In a world overflowing with data but starved for meaning, Vokshoor’s work reminds us: the nervous system may begin in the brain—but it expands into every corner of our lives.
Visit www.nsg-la.com for more information on NSG; www.inifoundation.org for more info on INI; and www.neurovella.com for more details on Neurovella.
