Research
Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of MeRT Treatment in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
MERT-005-B is a prospective, double blind, randomized, sham-controlled, parallel group, stratified, adaptive clinical trial designed to evaluate the efficacy of EEG-guided MeRT in persons with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with and without Persistent Post-Concussive Symptoms (PPCS) following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
MORE INFOsTMS for Substance Use-disordered Veterans
VA Office of Research and Development - The goal of this proposal is to evaluate preliminary participant response to a pilot, controlled, feasibility study to evaluate changes in craving, substance use, and quality of life after 6 weeks of a low-risk non-invasive brain stimulation technique, called Synchronized Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (sTMS), compared to sham, in Veterans with a substance use disorder (SUD).
More InfoEvaluate the Safety and Efficacy of MeRT Treatment in Persistent Post-Concussive Symptoms (PPCS)
MeRT-TBI-005 is a prospective, double blind, randomized, sham-controlled, parallel group, adaptive clinical trial designed to evaluate the efficacy of EEG/EKG-guided MeRT in active duty military service men and women, reservists on active duty orders, and military retirees with Persistent Post-Concussion Symptoms (PPCS) and Traumatic Brain Injury.
More Info2014
Improved autism behaviors after noninvasive cerebral trans- magnetic stimulation using customized frequency modulation: follow-up mean 24 months
Non-invasive cerebral transmagnetic stimulation using customized frequency is safe at mean 24-month for the treatment of a child with autism behaviors. In those who completed 12 months (n=44), CARS was improved in 59.1% of cases by -11.7 +/- 6.2 S.D. This improvement may reflect potentiation by TMS coupled with intensive behavioral interventions. Class I research will need to be performed to confirm this data.
View Paper2012
A stable pattern of EEG spectral coherence distinguishes children with autism from neurotypical controls - a large case control study
Classification success suggests a stable coherence loading pattern that differentiates ASD- from Cgroup subjects. This might constitute an EEG coherence-based phenotype of childhood autism. The predominantly reduced short-distance coherences may indicate poor local network function. The increased long-distance coherences may represent compensatory processes or reduced neural pruning. The wide average spectral range of factor loadings may suggest over-damped neural networks.
View Paper2016
The Potential of Magnetic Resonant Therapy in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
At the cellular level, EEG likely records activity from cortical and hippocampal pyramidal cells which are aligned in parallel. These pyramidal cells act as interconnected nonlinear oscillators. Given the scale free organization of neurons, EEG recordings of these complex, non-linear signals may be indicative of asynchrony and lack of coherence and not only indicative of aberrant neuronal networks but may also represent a potential avenue for therapeutic intervention. Despite this, given our understanding of the EEG and the consistent abnormalities in the electrophysiology of children with ASD, we would suggest that MRT is an appropriate therapeutic option to further pursue. The existing literature in depression and posttraumatic stress disorder in addition to preliminary studies in children with ASD all support its potential impact as a therapeutic option.
View Paper2018
EEG Analytics for Early Detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A data-driven approach
Nonlinear analysis of EEG signals extracts information that is significantly different in children who develop ASD, as early as 3 months of age. Predictions of the diagnostic outcomes were highly accurate using measurements as early as 3 months of age. Our analytic approach was not only associated with the binary outcome, but also strongly correlated with symptom severity as measured by CSS scores.
View Paper2022
Outcomes from Individual Alpha Frequency Guided Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
The post-α-rTMS data shows a significant improvement in IAF, towards 10 Hz. The CARS and PedsQLTM 4.0 surveys indicate that patients’ ASD symptoms and quality of life improved significantly.
View Paper2021
Individual alpha frequency proximity associated with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation outcome: An independent replication study from the ICON-DB consortium, Clinical Neurophysiology, 132 (2), 643-649.
rTMS treatment outcome is quadratically related to the individual alpha peak frequency (IAF) in depression. Absolute distance of IAF to 10 Hz is linearly related to clinical outcome.
View Paper2020
A Chart Review to Assess the Response of Veterans Suffering from Tinnitus to Alpha Burst Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Eighteen of the 23 patients reported significant improvements in tinnitus symptoms. For patients reporting improvements, there was an average 44% reduction in tinnitus symptoms and a 60% reduction in NSI scores following intervention.
View Paper2019
Brain Activity and Clinical Outcomes in Adults With Depression Treated With Synchronized Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: An Exploratory Study
This study identified that target sites related to depression can be actively targeted and engaged using sTMS.
View Paper2019
sTMS for posttraumatic stress disorder and comorbid major depression
This study found that active sTMS yielded greater reductions in PTSD and MDD symptoms than sham sTMS.
View Paper2019
The relationship between individual alpha peak frequency and clinical outcome with repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Brain Stimulation, 12 (6), 1572-1578.
This suggests that interactions between endogenous frequencies and treatment outcome may be related to the selected stimulation parameters.
View Paper2018
Predictors of response to synchronized transcranial magnetic stimulation for major depressive disorder
This study found that participants with greater severity of depression and higher anxiety had superior responses to synchronized transcranial magnetic stimulation (sTMS).
View Paper2017
Electric field characteristics of low-field sTMS
This study found that sTMS has a maximum induced electric field strength of approximately 0.02 Vm, which is an order of magnitude lower compared to those delivered by traditional rTMS
View Paper2016
The Potential of Magnetic Resonant Therapy in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
The study found that guided TMS’s effect on aberrant EEG biomarkers for PTSD and Depression might make it uniquely suited to improve disrupted networks in autism patients.
View Paper2015
sTMS Efficacy and Safety of Low-field sTMS for Treatment of Major Depression
This study demonstrated that when accurately & consistently delivered, low-field magnetic energy synchronized to a subjects individualized alpha frequency is considered an effective treatment for MDD.
View Paper2015
Magnetic Resonance Therapy Improves Clinical Phenotype and EEG Alpha Power in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
This open-label study found that over 4 weeks, Veterans with PTSD treated with guided TMS saw significant improvements in clinical scales & EEG biomarkers indicative of functional brain activity disruption.
View Paper2014
A pilot study of the use of EEG-based sTMS for treatment of Major Depression
This study demonstrated that patients receiving sTMS had a statically significant decrease in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) symptoms over those subjects in the sham group.
View Paper2013
The affect of TMS on brain oscillations and their impact on the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
This study summarizes evidence that the therapeutic effectiveness of rTMS can be improved by synchronizing stimulation to the patient’s individualized alpha frequency.
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