Department of Psychiatry

For patients suffering from some of the most debilitating forms of mental illness, brain stimulation may offer a path to recovery. Used when multiple medications have proven ineffective, these interventions are designed to correct the functioning of brain circuits. In a new study, Mount Sinai researchers have confirmed that stimulation location can make all the difference. Patients impaired by obsessive-compulsive disorder were treated with deep brain stimulation. Remarkably, a majority of these severely ill patients responded to the therapy. Brain imaging revealed that the patients who got better were much more likely to have been effectively stimulated in one particular bundle of brain cells. This bundle serves as a conduit, connecting higher brain areas responsible for decision-making with deeper brain structures that generate emotions and urges. The researchers argue that restoring normal cross-talk between these different parts of the brain is essential to the recovery process.