Today we had the privilege of speaking with a true pioneer in the field of neuropsychiatry and brain stimulation— Dr. Harold Sackeim. Dr. Sackeim is perhaps best known for his extensive research on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), but his contributions span a wide range of topics from treatment-resistant depression to the placebo effect in neurostimulation. As a founding figure in modern ECT research, he has played a central role in shaping both the science and the clinical practice of brain sti...
Apr 24, 2025•2 hr 2 min
In this episode, we journey through the remarkable career of Dr. Rees Cosgrove—a trailblazer in functional neurosurgery, Director of Epilepsy and Functional Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cosgrove reflects on his formative years training in the very halls that were roamed by legends such as Wilder Penfield at the Montreal Neurological Institute, and takes us through pivotal chapters of his career leading programs at Mass...
Apr 22, 2025•1 hr 50 min
In this episode we will dive deep into the minds of leading researchers and clinicians in the field of neuromodulation. Today, we are thrilled to have Dr. Terry Sanger with us. Dr. Sanger is a renowned pediatric neurologist, engineer, and Chief Scientific Officer at CHOC, where he focuses on improving the lives of children with movement disorders—especially dystonia. He’s well known for combining deep computational approaches with cutting-edge neuromodulation techniques. In this episode, we’ll u...
Mar 27, 2025•1 hr 47 min
In this episode, we have the privilege of speaking with Dr. Todd Herrington, a leading neurologist and director of the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) program at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Herrington specializes in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, tremor, and dystonia, and his research focuses on the motor, cognitive, and psychiatric effects of DBS, leveraging intraoperative and noninvasive neurophysiology and neuroimaging to advance neuromodulation therapies. Today, we’ll e...
Mar 18, 2025•1 hr 41 min
In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Jonathan Downar, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist based in Toronto, renowned for his pioneering research in transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for depression. You may recognize him from his landmark work on the Three-D Trial, which helped establish intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) as a rapid and effective alternative to standard repetitive TMS. Recently, Jonathan has been pushing the boundaries of TMS with accelerated treatment protocols, inc...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 67
In this episode, we have a privilege to talk with Dr. Roxanne Lofredi, a prominent researcher investigating movement disorders and deep brain stimulation (DBS). Dr. Lofredi is based at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and is widely recognized for her groundbreaking contributions to understanding how basal ganglia networks drive motor symptoms in conditions such as dystonia and Parkinson’s disease. Today, we’ll explore two fascinating studies led by Dr. Lofredi. The first focuses on how subth...
Jan 03, 2025•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 66
In this episode of Stimulating Brains , we're thrilled to have Jim McNasby join us. Jim is a deep brain stimulation (DBS) patient and the Chief Counsel at the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Jim has an inspiring story, not just as a DBS patient but also as a legal professional working at the forefront of Parkinson’s research advocacy. We’ll dive into his personal experience with DBS—how it has shaped his life since his diagnosis in 2000 and his surgery in 2019—and explore his crucial role at the Mich...
Dec 23, 2024•1 hr 15 min
Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Bálint Várkuti, a distinguished expert in the field of neuromodulation. Dr. Várkuti is the founder and CEO of CereGate , a pioneering company developing brain-computer interface technologies—referred to as computer-brain interface technologies—that aim to enhance neuromodulation therapies. Before founding CereGate , Dr. Várkuti made significant contributions to image-guided DBS programming solutions at Brainlab . With over a decade of experience i...
Dec 13, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Season 1Ep. 64
In this episode, we have the pleasure of hosting Mark McAuley, a deep brain stimulation (DBS) patient and the CEO of Astronomy Australia Limited, and Dr. Susan Boehnke, an Associate Professor at Queen’s University in Canada and director of the Neurotech Microcredential Program and the Neurotech Discovery Lab. Together, they've been part of remarkable efforts that not only focus on the practical and ethical aspects of neurotechnology but also engage students in real-time research. Mark brings ove...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 53 min•Season 1Ep. 63
In today’s episode, we dive deep into two groundbreaking studies led by Daniela and Clément. We explore their 2022 Nature Communications paper on using cerebellar stimulation to alleviate levodopa-induced dyskinesias in Parkinson’s disease and discuss their 2023 paper uncovering the cerebellum’s role in regulating fear extinction through its connections with the thalamo-prefrontal cortex pathway. Along the way, we discuss how these discoveries may open up exciting new possibilities for treating ...
Nov 11, 2024•1 hr 49 min•Season 1Ep. 62
In this episode, I was able to talk to Dr. Shan Siddiqi, who is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he and his lab focuses on brain circuit therapeutics. Shan’s work bridges the gap between neuroimaging and causality, exploring the mechanisms of brain stimulation and lesions in neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He’s...
Nov 05, 2024•1 hr 12 min
In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Suthana, a leading neuroscientist from UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine and the Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior. Dr. Suthana’s career sits at the intersection of neuroscience, neural technology, and engineering, focusing on memory disorders and innovative brain technologies. We explore her groundbreaking research on memory enhancement through deep brain stimulation (DBS), focusing on a study where stimulation of th...
Nov 01, 2024•54 min
As a fourth installment of this podcast into key industry leaders in neuromodulation, this is our conversation with Milad Girgis, who is the VP and General Manager of the Brain franchise at Boston Scientific. Milad has dedicated over 25 years to the Medical Device Industry, with two decades at Boston Scientific. Before diving into his impressive tenure at Boston Scientific, we explore the earlier phases of his career and identify key turning points that shaped his professional journey. Milad pro...
Aug 14, 2024•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 59
In this episode, we have an insightful conversation with Dr. Ali Rezai, who is the Associate Dean of Neuroscience at West Virginia University (WVU) and Executive Chair and Director of its Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute (RNI). We take a deeper dive into Dr. Rezai’s career, which features his notable achievement of performing 900 neurostimulator implants by 2006. We highlight Dr. Rezai’s involvement in deep brain stimulation (DBS) and focused ultrasound (FUS), particularly in treating severe t...
Aug 02, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 58
Mallory Hacker is an Assistant Professor for Neurology in the team of David Charles, who is Professor of Neurology, Vice-Chair for Business Development and Strategy, as well as the Medical Director for Telehealth at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2006, after a stay at Alim Louis Benabids team in Grenoble, France, David started to investigate the question of whether subthalamic DBS could lead to slowing of motor progression in patients with early stages of Parkin...
Jul 26, 2024•1 hr 30 min
Harith Akram is the consultant neurosurgeon at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (UCLH) and the Unit of Functional Neurosurgery (UCL) at Queen Square. We discuss Dr. Akram's hobbies beyond the lab and OR and delve into his fascinating journey which culminated in him training in the UK, with many stops along the way. Harith shares insights into his illustrious career, highlighting the key mentors who shaped his path, including Drs. Marwan Hariz and Ludvic Zrinzo. With many anec...
Jul 09, 2024•2 hr•Ep. 56
Jens Volkmann is a Professor and the chair of Neurology at University Hospital Würzburg in Germany and one of the key DBS experts in the field. I have intensely collaborated with Jens and his team and he has been a mentor for me since a long time. In fact, in this conversation, Jens reminded me of exactly when we first met, during a summer school in cortona, italy, where I was fortunate enough to listen to fantastic talks by exciting faculty including Jens about the future of Deep Brain Stimulat...
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 55
Phil Starr is a Professor of Neurological Surgery at University of California, San Francisco and a developer of implantable brain devices. At UCSF, he co-directs a multidisciplinary neurology/neurosurgery movement disorders clinic together with Dr. Jill Ostrem. I’ve been a long-time admirer of Phil’s work and in this conversation we blaze through quite a few of his numerous publications. One key breakthrough and invention of Phils work has been to include Ecog recordings – both intraoperatively ...
Jun 23, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 54
Dr. Mark Hallett is arguably the person that put transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on the map. Besides that, he is an authority in the field of movement disorders and motor control, with specific focus – spread throughout the years – on Parkinson's Disease, dystonia and functional movement disorders. In our conversation, Dr. Hallett shares anecdotes from the early time of the TMS field, his large number of mentors and even larger number of mentees, how he was able to treat the pianist Leon...
Apr 30, 2024•2 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 53
In our ongoing exploration of the DBS ecosystem through the lens of key industry leaders, below is our conversaion with Amaza Reitmeier who is the Vice President and General Manager of Brain Modulation at Medtronic. We learn differences between life in academia and industry, with a key potential of industry work to get the ability to make change at scale. In this episode, we discuss what the future of brain modulation may offer, with some aspirational commentary on several potential opportunitie...
Apr 18, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 52
In this very special episode, we are thrilled to welcome back Ben Stecher, marking his remarkable third appearance on StimBrains (you can find him previously featured on episodes #12 and #14 ). Today’s discussion takes a profound turn as we delve into the unique collaboration between Ben and his neurologist Dr. Alfanso Fasano, who is a Professor in the Department of Medicine (Division of Neurology) at the University of Toronto. Together, they’ve co-authored ‘ Reprogramming The Brain ‘, a book th...
Apr 05, 2024•1 hr 46 min•Season 1Ep. 51
When I interviewed Marwan Hariz for episode #4, he wrote in an email: "When you finish the series and all interviews, please let me know because then I should interview you as the Grand Finale of this series…". Throughout the recordings, I heard similar remarks from other guests but also, increasingly, from listeners of the show. After Nico Dosenbach suggested the same in #39, Mike Fox called me and offered to interview me for a round episode of the podcast. With this episode, Stimulating Brains...
Mar 19, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 50
Dora Hermes and Kai Miller are associate professors at Mayo Clinic, where they have become a powerhouse on neuroscience, due to their strong collaboration and work in neural signal processing and analysis. Dora has a mathematics background, while Kai studied physics, including a PhD in physics, before becoming a functional neurosurgeon. Last year, both of them last authored a paper each at Nature Neuroscience, each with remarkable and groundbreaking findings about pretty different topics. The fi...
Mar 16, 2024•1 hr 46 min•Season 1Ep. 49
In our ongoing exploration of the DBS ecosystem throughout the podcast, we've engaged with leading voices in academia, clinical practice, and the patient community, each offering invaluable perspectives on the transformative impact of DBS. Yet, the journey from laboratory to bedside is a collaborative endeavor that requires another critical player: the industry. The symbiosis between innovative scientific research and robust industry support is crucial for the successful transition of groundbrea...
Mar 06, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Marwan Hariz and Joachim Krauss need no introduction. First, because they are famous, and second, because they have been on the show, before. In fact, Marwan Hariz is the first to have been on the podcast three times, first, as an early adopter and trustee in episode 3 , second, together with Joachim Krauss and Christian Moll in episode 33 , and now again with Joachim in the present episode. I met Joachim in Grenoble at a meeting celebrating the 30th year anniversary of STN-DBS. He mentioned tha...
Feb 23, 2024•2 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 47
So far, in the podcast, I have been interviewing key opinion leaders from academia and clinical practice, and sometimes individual patients that graciously shared their insights after undergoing DBS. However, beyond patients and clinicians, there is a third component necessary for DBS to be successful, which are our partners in the industry. Without great industry leadership, it is hard if impossible to translate scientific findings into clinical practice. For instance, when the Grenoble team de...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 30 min•Season 1Ep. 46
In this special episode of Stimulating Brains, we dive deep into the intricacies of the human brain with two esteemed guests, Mac Shine from Sydney University and Paul Cisek from the University of Montreal. Building upon our earlier conversation with Mac in episode 9, this episode sees these brilliant minds sharing their insights on the basal ganglia, the role of dopamine, and the fascinating interplay between various brain regions. In addition, we explore the modulation of the thalamus by the b...
Dec 07, 2023•2 hr 8 min•Ep. 45
In this conversation with Jennifer ('Niffy') Thomas and Dr. Michael Stanley, we talk about how Niffy became an artist after undergoing DBS surgery to treat her early onset Parkinson's Disease. Dr. Michael Stanley is a cognitive neurologist at the Brigham & Women's Hospital and has special interest in art and the brain: He studies how lesions or other neurological conditions can lead to cessation of artistic behavior or how they can change the artistic style of artists. When he read about Nif...
Nov 24, 2023•1 hr 59 min•Season 1Ep. 44
In this conversation with Dr. Vanessa Milanese, we cover the importance of anatomy in neurosurgery and explore her intriguing work in both fields – and how they cross-informed one another. Vanessa is a functional neurosurgeon at A Beneficencia Portuguesa Hospital in São Paulo, Brazil and holds an adjunct assistant professorship of neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. We talk about her stellar work in combining her neurosurgical activity with anatomical work – which involves diss...
Oct 19, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 43
In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Kullervo Hynynen, a key figure in biomedical ultrasound and image-guided therapeutics. Starting from his academic roots at the University of Aberdeen to his current roles at the Sunnybrook Research Institute and the University of Toronto, Dr. Hynynen has played an instrumental role in advancing medical imaging. He has been at the forefront of investigating the use of focused ultrasound for various medical procedures such as non-invasive surgery, vascular sur...
Oct 13, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 42
