Ofer Pasternak, PhD, and Johanna Seitz-Holland, MD, PhD, of the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues conducted the first study to compare white matter in 22q-del and 22q-dup, and report finding opposing abnormalities that might indicate distinct pathologies.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a novel brain mapping method that suggests lesions, TMS and DBS converge on a common brain circuit for depression—which may represent a better target for therapeutic neurostimulation. The approach seems to be generalizable to other neuropsychiatric diseases.

By using a newer technique called lesion network mapping, Michael Ferguson, PhD, Michael D. Fox, MD, PhD, of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues have identified a specific brain circuit that seems to be a neural substrate for spirituality and religiosity.

Can targeting certain brain circuits with therapeutic stimulation modulate neuropsychiatric symptoms? A recent study involving multiple Brigham and Women’s Hospital investigators including Michael D. Fox, MD, PhD, and Shan H. Siddiqi, MD, MBBS, answers that crucial question in the affirmative.