Brain Stimulation
January 1, 2024
Charles R Conway, Scott T Aaronson, Harold A Sackeim et al.
16 citations
Patients with treatment-resistant unipolar major depressive disorder who qualified for the RECOVER trial—the largest randomized sham-controlled study of vagus nerve stimulation for a psychiatric condition—had severe disability, a median of 11.0 prior failed antidepressant treatments, and high rates of suicidality (77% with suicidal ideation, 40% with previous suicide attempts). Seventy-one percent had received at least one prior interventional psychiatric treatment (electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, or esketamine). Compared to those without such history, recipients of interventional treatments were younger, more severely depressed, had greater suicidal ideation, earlier onset of depression, and more failed medication trials.
Brain Stimulation
October 5, 2021
Gonçalo Cotovio, Albino J Oliveira-Maia, Carter Paul et al.
3 citations
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex does not reduce depressive symptoms more than sham stimulation in patients with treatment-resistant depression. In a randomized controlled trial, both active and sham tDCS groups showed similar improvements in depression scores over six weeks, with no significant difference between them. The findings suggest that tDCS, as administered in this protocol, is not effective as a standalone treatment for this population.
Brain Stimulation
April 28, 2020
Kristian H. R. Jensen, Sofie Trolle Pedersen, Mette Vinther Hansen et al.
2 citations
A 30-year-old woman with depression and red-green color blindness experienced temporary improvements in color perception after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Before ECT, she made 30 mistakes on the Ishihara color blindness test; one hour after her 24th ECT session, she made only 15 mistakes and reported colors appearing brighter and more vivid, though her vision returned to baseline the next day. This case suggests ECT can transiently enhance color discrimination in a color-blind individual, an effect not previously reported. The authors propose possible mechanisms involving altered processing in the thalamus or visual cortex, and note parallels with the heightened color perception reported after psychedelic experiences.
Brain Stimulation
May 21, 2026
Lucas Dwiel, Mackenzi L. Prina, Elise Bragg et al.
Pretreating rats with LSD before electrically stimulating the infralimbic cortex produces larger and longer-lasting changes in brain activity than stimulation alone. The combination activates the mTOR signaling pathway and alters perineuronal net integrity, suggesting a mechanism for enhanced neuroplasticity. Brain activity during stimulation did not predict the persistent changes seen minutes or days later. These findings support developing psychedelic-assisted brain stimulation approaches to improve durability of stimulation effects, potentially reducing relapse rates in clinical treatments.
Brain Stimulation
November 18, 2023
Anna Duong, Julian Quabs, Aaron Kucyi et al.
Direct electrical stimulation of the human insular cortex in 17 neurosurgical patients with 142 implanted electrodes induced reportable changes in conscious experience at 40% of stimulation sites, spanning visceral/autonomic, anxiety, taste/olfactory, pain/temperature, and somatosensory domains. These subjective responses mapped onto specific microstructural areas defined by cytoarchitectonic parcellation: pain and thermal responses localized to areas lg2/ld2, non-painful somatosensory responses to area ld3, and visceroceptive responses to area Id6. Stimulation of area Id7 in the dorsal anterior insula did not produce reportable subjective changes, despite intracranial EEG recordings showing significant time-locked high-frequency activity. The findings provide a multimodal functional map linking fine-grained microstructural subdivisions to distinct subjective experiences.
Brain Stimulation
November 1, 2018
O. Bodart, M. Fecchio, M. Massimini et al.
Meditation involves complex emotional and attentional training that may improve self-awareness, emotion regulation, attention, and brain structure, but its neurophysiology is not well understood. Transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) offers a non-invasive way to probe brain activity and connectivity. This work aims to determine whether TMS-EEG can detect changes in brain reactivity during meditation and whether those changes are specific to the meditative state and the brain region stimulated.