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Michael Fox

@foxmdphd.bsky.social
2.2K followers 91 following 49 posts

Raymond D. Adams Endowed Chair and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School / Mass General Brigham; Director of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics @braincircuits.bsky.social

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Reposted by Michael Fox
BD² @bipolardiscoveries.org · 03/08/2026
🧠📈Great to see the BD² community at the 2026 NYC Neuromodulation Conference—sharing ideas, connecting across the field, and bringing our neuromodulation teams together. @foxmdphd.bsky.social @umnbme.bsky.social @stanfordmedicine.bsky.social @weillcornell.bsky.social @sinaibrain.bsky.social
Group picture of the attendees of the NYC Neuromodulation Conference standing together smiling at the camera.
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Reposted by Michael Fox
Imaging Neuroscience @imagingneurosci.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Joline M. Fan, Keith R. Murphy, et al: Toward a transcriptomic framework for ultrasound neuromodulation: A perspective on gene expression and regional brain sensitivity doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
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Reposted by Michael Fox
Lead-DBS @lead-dbs.org · 09/07/2026
New publication using Lead-DBS: In this article by Barlatey et al., the authors tested the robustness of DBS lead reconstruction using two distinct postoperative CT scans per patient and found mean lead tip translation of 0.79 mm, ind... Check out the paper here 👇👇 doi.org/10.1159/000552349
Title card for publication: Robustness of Lead Reconstruction for Deep Brain Stimulation Modeling and Probabilistic Mapping
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Is brain circuit targeted TMS better than standard clinical TMS for treating depression? New study led by Joe Taylor @braincircuits.bsky.social out today in @jamapsychiatry.com says yes! Connectivity- vs Scalp-Based Targeting of Accelerated TMS for Depression jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Connectivity- vs Scalp-Based Targeting of Accelerated TMS for Depression
This randomized clinical trial estimates the effect size of connectivity- vs scalp-based targeting of accelerated transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment-resistant depression.
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Reposted by Michael Fox
UCL @ucl.ac.uk · 16/06/2026
New UCL research has identified a brain network linked to diffuse midline glioma (DMG), one of the deadliest childhood brain cancers. Published in Nature, the study suggests a tumour's location within this network may help predict outcomes and guide future treatments. bit.ly/3S8109e
Illustration of a brain with highlighted regions in blue and purple, depicting neurological activities or pathways. The background is a gradient of dark shades.
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Can lesion network mapping predict survival in children with brain tumors? Collaboration with UCL and @braincircuits.bsky.social in @nature.com suggests the answer is yes. Cutting the tumor off from this network may provide survival benefit. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A prognostic human brain network for diffuse midline glioma - Nature
Tumour network mapping of diffuse midline glioma (DMG) defines a conserved and prognostically important brain network in children with DMG, consistent with the hypothesis that DMGs exploit otherw...
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
How do you build a brain circuit treatment for patients with the most severe form of epilepsy? Start by finding the brain circuit target. Great talk by @rolstonjohn.bsky.social @braincircuits.bsky.social
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Reposted by Michael Fox
Drew Schreiner @schreinerdrew.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Where, exactly, does learning happen in the brain? Out today in @nature.com, we identify a synaptic locus of birdsong learning and show that the circuit can be tuned to make birds learn faster - but at a cost. Read on👇 #neuroskyence 🧪 #prattle 💬 #bioacoustics Shareable link: rdcu.be/fiyrS
nature.com
A synaptic locus of song learning - Nature
Combining a computational framework and optogenetic and chemogenetic manipulations within and downstream of the cortico-basal ganglia circuit identifies the specific cortico-basal ganglia synapse...
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Andreas Horn @andreashorn.org · 07/05/2026
The rarely told story of DBS before DBS from an industry perspective. Thank you very much, Keith Mullett, for taking part in this interview! Tune in below:
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Reposted by Michael Fox
Stimulating Brains @stimulatingbrains.org · 07/05/2026
Moreover, did you know that Stimulating Brains Episodes are now searchable – and citeable? Check the website for a transcript player with search functionality – great to check back to "something you've heard" on the show in some of the episodes. All transcripts also available on figshare etc.
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Reposted by Michael Fox
BD² @bipolardiscoveries.org · 24/04/2026
🧠 @foxmdphd.bsky.social and his BD² Discovery Research team at @mgbresearch.bsky.social are mapping brain circuits tied to specific bipolar symptoms—unlocking targeted neuromodulation treatments rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Thank you @avaskham.bsky.social @thetransmitter.bsky.social for covering the ongoing discussion re lesion network mapping. It is commendable when a news publication covers both sides of an issue, and a great example of unbiased and responsible reporting.
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Reposted by Michael Fox
The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
A wave of new papers discuss the merits and limitations of lesion network mapping. #neuroskyence By @avaskham.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/brain-imagin...
thetransmitter.org
‘Overdue’ debate unfurls over neuroimaging method
After a January paper questioned the validity of an approach called lesion network mapping, its users are pressure testing their results.
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Reposted by Michael Fox
BD² @bipolardiscoveries.org · 07/04/2026
When clinicians and researchers work together toward the goal of improving lives for those with #bipolardisorder, collaboration shifts how research progresses. Hear from Tracy Young-Pearse, PhD, on BD²'s integrated approach in the latest #InvestigatorInsights. 🧠
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Congratulations @shansiddiqi.bsky.social and Joe Taylor @braincircuits.bsky.social on their paper In Mol Psych demonstrating the translational power of LNM and brain circuit therapeutics. It has already changed clinical TMS practice @massgeneralbrigham.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social.
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Shan Siddiqi @shansiddiqi.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
New paper in Molecular Psychiatry: In patients with anxiety + depression, targeting a novel “anxiosomatic” circuit (dmPFC) outperforms standard dlPFC for anxiety—and is equally effective for depression. Free link: rdcu.be/faL22 Full link: lnkd.in/e4WZTncu But the bigger story is the pipeline 1/n
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Should doctors be certified to deliver brain stimulation? @shansiddiqi.bsky.social @braincircuits.bsky.social says yes - kicking off the brain stimulation subspecialty summit (BraSS).
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Reposted by Michael Fox
Tim Ritter @timritter.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Many good points, one more: We empirically demonstrate that spatial bias does not contribute to real-world LNM findings when using appropriate specificity-testing: doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org
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Caroline Nettekoven @carobellum.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
🧠 Resting-state fMRI is often treated as the gold standard for studying the brain’s intrinsic organization. But is it actually the best way to estimate functional architecture? We tested this directly. 🧵1/8
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
What’s the difference between a neurological vs psychiatric disorder? @braincircuits.bsky.social , it’s only the circuit impacted. Honored to become one of the first full Professors of both Psychiatry and Neurology @harvardmed.bsky.social Excited to help bridge this divide.
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Marvin Petersen @petersenm.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
We don't think it invalidates the approach. We looked into this in our data and replicated the key result showing convergence to non-specific connectome structure. However, our results also suggest there is a practical fix that is already implemented in some LNM studies. bsky.app/profile/pete...
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Phil Corlett @philcorlett.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
This is a robust response. I particularly liked this figure - clarifying why the original critique showed what it did, and what was missing @foxmdphd.bsky.social
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Reposted by Michael Fox
Andreas Horn @andreashorn.org · 27/02/2026
A recent @natneuro.nature.com paper analyzed lesion network mapping and raised concerns about the validity of the method. See below 👇 for our response. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
A recent paper in @natureportfolio.nature.com raised concerns about the lesion network mapping method. Our team of 16 coauthors analyzed >1000 lesions and 34 symptoms and found that "The methodological foundations of lesion network mapping remain sound" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Andreas Horn @andreashorn.org · 20/02/2026
New @netstim.org publication alert: @bahnebahners.bsky.social in BRAIN out now: academic.oup.com/brain/advanc... A 🧵:
academic.oup.com
The deep brain stimulation response network in Parkinson’s disease operates in the high beta band
Bahners et al. identify a brain network linked to optimal therapeutic outcomes in patients with Parkinson’s disease receiving deep brain stimulation. This
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Reposted by Michael Fox
Isaiah Kletenik @isaiahneuro.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Can a brain injury make someone lose their imagination? We describe rare cases of acquired aphantasia, people who lost the ability to visually imagine after a stroke or other brain injury. Now published in Cortex 🧠 @braincircuits.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Lesions Causing Aphantasia are Connected to the Fusiform Imagery Node
The absence of visual mental imagery, called aphantasia, occurs congenitally in up to 3% of the general population, but the brain regions responsible …
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Reposted by Michael Fox
David L Perez MD, MMSc @davidlewisperez.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
One week away from launching our 2nd annual @harvardmed.bsky.social course Brain Medicine: Integrating the Clinical Neurosciences. On demand viewing for 30 days. Nearly 150 people registered. Join us! @jrbneuropsiq.bsky.social @foxmdphd.bsky.social learn.hms.harvard.edu/programs/bra...
learn.hms.harvard.edu
Brain Medicine: Integrating the Clinical Neurosciences | Harvard Medical School Professional, Corporate, and Continuing Education
Explore cutting-edge advances in brain medicine with this interdisciplinary course designed to equip clinicians with integrated tools for assessing and managing complex brain disorders, featuring expe...
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Reposted by Michael Fox
Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
The Shingles vaccine and reduction of dementia: a new natural experiment from Canada replicated 3 others and adds to this week's link to slowing of biological aging. erictopol.substack.com/p/spotlight-...
erictopol.substack.com
Spotlight on the Shingles Vaccine—Again!
Two new studies add to a remarkable body of evidence for benefit
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
The Shingles vaccine has outperformed all expectations. Why? erictopol.substack.com/p/spotlight-...
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Thanks to The Transmitter for reaching out to me for comments on this methodological challenge to lesion network mapping. Scientific debate is critical to methodological advancement - so let the debate begin! www.thetransmitter.org/brain-imagin...
thetransmitter.org
Methodological flaw may upend network mapping tool
The lesion network mapping method, used to identify disease-specific brain networks for clinical stimulation, produces a nearly identical network map for any given condition, according to a new study.
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Are connectome-based network mapping methods and the >200 papers that have used it invalid? New paper out in @NatureNeuro says YES. nature.com/articles/s41... I have concerns about this new paper's methods and conclusions, but am biased. What do others think?
nature.com
Investigating the methodological foundation of lesion network mapping - Nature Neuroscience
The lesion network mapping method links diverse brain lesions to similar functional brain networks, reflecting general brain organization rather than disorder-specific circuits.
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Reposted by Michael Fox
Elizabeth Ellis, PhD @elizabethellisphd.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
New pre-print out now from Dr Daniel Corp, @jjoutsa.bsky.social and @foxmdphd.bsky.social ‘Mapping the neuroanatomy of dystonia using causal brain lesions’ !! www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6... We map networks for the different dystonias, showing significant differences, somatotopy...and much more!!
medrxiv.org
Mapping the Neuroanatomy of Dystonia Using Causal Brain Lesions
Dystonia is one of the most prevalent movement disorders, but its neural substrates have remained enigmatic despite decades of research. Brain lesions leading to dystonia offer unique causal inference...
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Jianxun Ren @jianxunren.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Very interesting findings! Gliomas selectively locate within in the Action-mode Network, using glioma network mapping derived from lesion network mapping @foxmdphd.bsky.social
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weigangcui.bsky.social @weigangcui.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Check out our new work on the relationship between glioma and system-level functional networks! We identify that nearly all gliomas localize within a common brain functional network, Action-Mode Network (AMN) . biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.05.697608v1
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Baller Lab @ballerlab.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Excited to share that our new review, "Depression as a disease of white matter network disruption: Learning from Multiple Sclerosis," is out now in Biological Psychiatry! We propose MS as a powerful model for studying how white matter network changes contribute to depression.
biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com
Depression as a disease of white matter network disruption: Learning from Multiple Sclerosis
Depression is a common and debilitating psychiatric disorder that is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. For nearly 40 years, scientists have attempted to localize depression in the b...
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Michael Okun @michaelokun.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
What is the burden in the US of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other diseases? Spoiler alert: there are surges beyond the pure numbers and we need to raise awareness for the increases in both disability and burden. Parkinson disease has shown the largest growth in burden on society. cutt.ly/xtyUtS0D
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Brain @brain1878.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Mongay-Ochoa et al. review advanced methods for mapping brain connections and identify common topographical patterns of pathology spread across different neurological disorders, including MS, AD and PD. tinyurl.com/3sz8ayup
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Brain @brain1878.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Pruckner et al. show that the structural effects of neurosurgery extend beyond the resected tissue into connected networks through transneuronal degeneration. They were able to reliably predict these changes from preoperative MRI. tinyurl.com/a6rxvbey
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BD² @bipolardiscoveries.org · 19/11/2025
🧪 Research Spotlight: Ziad Nahas, MD, MSCR, is studying how brain networks regulate mood in #BipolarDisorder & how instability drives shifts between depression & mania with PACE 👉 Goal: Test if targeting networks can improve mood & reveal mechanisms behind switches. 🔗 bit.ly/4gTbBwU
A horizontal graphic with a teal panel on the lefthand side reading “Discovery Research Grantee ’25; University of Minnesota Medical School; Research: Precision Functional Mapping-Guided Network Stimulation for Bipolar Depression.” The right side of the graphic features headshots and titles of the research team: Lead Principal Investigator Ziad Nahas, MD, MSCR; and Co-Principal Investigators Damien Fair, PA-C, PhD; David Darrow, MD, MPH; Tay Netoff, PhD; and Alex Opitz, PhD. The BD² logo appears in the bottom lefthand corner.
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BD² @bipolardiscoveries.org · 05/11/2025
🧪 Research Spotlight: Michael Fox, MD, PhD (@foxmdphd.bsky.social) of Mass General Brigham (@mgbresearch.bsky.social) will map brain circuits driving symptoms in #BipolarDisorder 👉 Goal: Go beyond imaging correlations to identify the circuits causing symptoms. 🔗 bit.ly/4gTbBwU
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Andrew Reid @reid-lab.org · 06/11/2025
This is 🤯 All publicly available. Looks like an amazing new histology-based human probabilistic atlas and parcellation tool. #neuroskyence #mri #brainmapping A probabilistic histological atlas of the human brain for MRI segmentation | Nature share.google/5AD0iW7pxgb4...
share.google
A probabilistic histological atlas of the human brain for MRI segmentation - Nature
NextBrain is an open source, probabilistic atlas of the entire human brain, assembled using artificial-intelligence-enabled registration and segmentation methods to reconstruct the multimodal serial h...
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Andreas Horn @andreashorn.org · 30/10/2025
Nice case report led by Ben Shofty's team adding prospective evidence for tract based reprogramming in deep brain stimulation for obsessive compulsive disorder out in @biologicalpsych.bsky.social: www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S000... 🧵
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Can we identify brain circuit targets to treat symptoms of bipolar disorder? Thanks to funding from @bipolardiscoveries.org our team @braincircuits.bsky.social will be working hard to find out! Honored to be one of these excellent teams. www.news-medical.net/news/2025102...
news-medical.net
BD² expands global effort to examine the key mechanisms of bipolar disorder
Today, BD², or Breakthrough Discoveries for thriving with Bipolar Disorder, announced its third round of Discovery Research grants, totaling nearly $18 million – expanding a comprehensive global effor...
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
From a new @thelancet.com article today entitled "Health care in the USA: money has become the mission" www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
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Sarah Heilbronner @srheilbronner.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Suzanne Haber was just elected to the National Academy of Medicine! Her work on the organization of the cortex and basal ganglia has had a huge impact. Please take the opportunity to congratulate her the next time you see her. www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/u...
urmc.rochester.edu
University of Rochester Neurobiologist Suzanne Haber Elected to National Academy of Medicine
An internationally recognized scientist, her work has transformed our understanding of the brain networks that play a central role in many mental health disorders, including obsessive compulsive disor...
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Andreas Horn @andreashorn.org · 01/10/2025
Fantastic talk by Joe Taylor on the „philosophers scan“ and how imaging can help neuromodulation at the Brainclinics TMS Masterclass in Nijmegen!
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Michael Okun @michaelokun.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Could the Parkinson’s drug levodopa prime the brain to respond better to intensive rehabilitation following a stroke or injury? Enter the idea: Let’s give dopamine pills after a stroke? Spoiler alert: This new large, randomized trial published in JAMA revealed no added benefit in recovery.
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Michael Fox @foxmdphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Honored to moderate a panel on noninvasive mapping of human brain circuits at MGB Neuroscience Day. Great insights from @anastasiayendiki.bsky.social @mghmartinos.bsky.social, @fredschaper.bsky.social @braincircuits.bsky.social, Alex Golby and Pravan Nanda @mgbneurosurgres.bsky.social.
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Michael Okun @michaelokun.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Boom: The results of the ADAPT-PD personalized brain stimulation trial showed promise for treating Parkinson’s. First longer-term results for adaptive DBS in PD. Adaptive stimulation automatically adjusts in real time to a person’s brain signals. @parkinsondotorg.bsky.social
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Michael Okun @michaelokun.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
What is the update for skin biopsies to differentiate Parkinson's vs. MSA? Spoiler alert: under confocal microscope, skin biopsies look different in PD vs MSA. Donadio and colleagues describe in a new paper in Brain the uses of intraneural phosphorylated α-synuclein. @parkinsondotorg.bsky.social
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