Helen Mayberg, MD of Emory University

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is an emerging treatment strategy for patients with intractable depression with selection of the subcallosal cingulate (SCC) as a stimulation target based principally on converging findings from resting-state PET studies of conventional antidepressant interventions. At present, surgical implantation of DBS electrodes relies on high resolution structural images to localize the SCC grey matter-white matter border followed by trial-and-error behavioral testing of chronic stimulation at individual contacts. Clinical response may however be optimized by more precise targeting along specific white matter tracts as evidenced by recent diffusion tensor imaging and tractography analyses of DBS responders and non-responders. Catalyzed by availability of next generation devices that allow ongoing recordings of local field potentials in the targeted circuit of interest, recent work now combines multimodal neuroimaging with real-time behavioral and electrophysiological measurements, providing a more precise method to identify the optimal target location and stimulation parameters for individual patients. Strategic integration of neuroengineering innovations and selective animal models offers potential complementary perspectives to fully delineate critical pathways and mechanisms mediating antidepressant effects of SCC DBS and inform on the pathophysiology of treatment resistant depression more generally.

Biography:

Helen Mayberg, MD is Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Radiology, and the Dorothy Fuqua Chair in Psychiatric Imaging and Therapeutics at Emory University. Her research has characterized neural systems mediating major depression and its recovery, defined imaging-based illness subtypes to optimize treatment selection, and introduced the first use of deep brain stimulation for treatment resistant patients. Dr. Mayberg received a BA in Psychobiology from UCLA and a MD from University of Southern California, and then completed her neurology residency at the Neurological Institute of New York, and fellowship training in nuclear medicine at Johns Hopkins. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Inventors, and has authored more than 200 publications, and participates in a wide variety of advisory and scientific activities across multiple fields in neuroscience.

Helen Mayberg, MD of Emory University

Biography: