Awesome work by @barbarahollunder.bsky.social showing how 4 different diseases that can all be modulated at a tiny nuclei (STN) can be differentiated by white matter tracts (to be a little hipster: I’ve been a fan of this since it was a preprint)

Really thought-provoking talk by @julianneumann.bsky.social going over many things, including STN DBS but not Sinemet decreases cortical beta, and a super interesting theory about closed-loop timing of stimulation to beta phase

Super cool talk by @karaannjohnson.bsky.social showing how evoked resonant neural activity (ERNA) can be used to guide DBS localization, direction, and (possibly even) more!

Very interesting talk by Dr. Bohui Qian about common targets for movement and psychiatric disorders. They have implanted pts with coccurring disorders with great results. Dr.Qian is finishing her neurosurgery residency and planning on psych residency after! Super impressive-come to Boston!

Super deserving of his award, @andreashorn.org identified specific tracts for specific diseases and even specific symptoms -> patient improvements in mx independent cohorts.

Amazing company for dinner, organized by the great Shiro Horisawa. Thank you for the cake to celebrate @andreashorn.org, my first Kobe beef, and great conversations sure to inspire future connections!

The voxels most connected to this circuit were in the subiculum, but the second-most connected region was in the rostromedial prefrontal cortex (rmPFC). We modeled the electrical field of a TMS coil and found that this region is sufficiently superficial to be modulated by TMS.

Turns out they do. When compared to symptoms not associated with psychosis (in blue), lesions that cause psychotic symptoms In gold) in this independent dataset mapped to significantly similar circuits to the psychosis circuit we derived.

All of the psychotic symptom groups (in gold) grouped together, with negative symptoms and thought disorder (the two groups with the smallest sample) pulling up the bottom of the list.

We then performed two tests: where these connections overlap and which connections are specific relative to >1000 lesions not associated with psychosis. These tests converged on the posterior aspect of the hippocampus, closely aligning with the subiculum (FWE-corrected p<0.0005.)

First, some background: psychosis is a syndrome of hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thought. Chronic symptoms are diagnosed as schizophrenia.
Antipsychotic medications are not always effective and often cause intolerable side effects. Talk to anyone who takes them - we need better treatment.

What brain regions are involved in causing psychotic symptoms?

Take a moment away from the existential dread about the future of science, and join me in this summary of some incredibly cool stuff that could help patients!
1/n🧵

Super cool work by @zachrosenthal.bsky.social showing slow depolarizing waves following some ECT sessions. Huge potential to further understand ECT and improve treatment! #ACNP2024

Trying again in gif format

Really incredible #ACNP2024 plenaries, including @sergiuppasca.bsky.social showing organoids from different segments of spinalthalamic tract spontaneously reform a (sausage-shaped) circuit. Also, we may be able to reproduce all varieties of CNS cells in 5-10 yrs!

Because my Twitter feed was filled with ads for terminal sweatpants.