A recent study led by Drs. Sameer Sheth and Wayne Goodman along with co-lead authors, Dr. Nicole Provenza, Sandy Reddy, and Anthony Allam identified a novel neural biomarker for OCD in patients receiving deep brain stimulation. The biomarker -- a loss of neural predictability in the ventral striatum -- enables the prediction and monitoring of clinical status from neural data.

Dr. Provenza was invited to present her talk, "Ethological neurobehavioral investigations in obsessive-compulsive disorder," at the 2024 OptoDBS Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, where she joined leading experts in optogenetics and DBS to discuss the latest advancements in the field.

Congrats Sameer for winning the "Best Basic Science Poster" at ASSFN! Sameer's poster was titled "High beta power in the human ventrolateral prefrontal cortex indexes approach behavior."

Congrats Thomas on being accepted to NSF's prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)! This fellowship will support Thomas' graduate studies both financially and professionally over a three-year period.

Our very own, Dr. Provenza, was recognized as a McNair Scholar and will be starting her lab at Baylor! "The McNair Medical Institute at Baylor College of Medicine was established in 2007 to recruit talented scientists and physician-scientists from around the world to the Texas Medical Center." Congrats Dr. Provenza on this remarkable achievement!

Dr. Provenza was invited to speak in a mini symposium at SfN. The mini symposium, Advances in DBS: From Mechanisms to Applications, was organized by Drs. Stephanie Cernera and Stephanie Sandoval. Dr. Provenza's talk was on intracranial neural biomarkers of response to deep brain stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Dr. Provenza was featured in the neuropsychiatry segment of the Eastern DBS Think Tank. Her talk, titled " Ethological neurobehavioral investigations in obsessive-compulsive disorder," spotlighted her work on identifying neural biomarkers of OCD symptoms across various settings.

The Congressional Neuroscience Caucus hosted a briefing on the NIH BRAIN Initiative, highlighting its significant advancements in brain research. The event allowed Congress members and staff to learn about recent breakthroughs and engage directly with a study participant, Katie, who shared her experience with deep brain stimulation for OCD. Drs. Provenza, Goodman, & Sheth, the leading researchers of her BRAIN study at BCM, were also present to discuss the Initiative's impact on innovations in neurotechnology.