The researchers used a noninvasive method for stimulating brain activity called transcranial magnetic stimulation to confirm that the frontopolar cortex controls important brain regions for emotional processing. They simultaneously recorded brain activity with fMR and were able confirm the findings.

“By identifying both the brain functions that predict outcome and those that change with treatment, and showing that we can target those brain systems directly through noninvasive brain stimulation, this work points to the direction by which the therapy itself can be personalized,” said Etkin.


For patients who would otherwise not respond to treatment, they have shown that treatment-related circuitry can be targeted by stimulating it. The next step is to see whether these regions can be repetitively stimulated for multiple days in order to turn the “brain profile” into one that responds better to therapy.

Etkin and his team are now working on a larger study to replicate and extend their treatment prediction capabilities in veterans receiving psychotherapy in the VA. They are also interested in using more clinic-ready tools.

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