About Our Research
The Mickey Lab, led by principal investigator Brian Mickey, MD, PhD, is using brain stimulation and brain imaging to understand the circuits that underlie neuropsychiatric illnesses.
Circuit-targeted interventions for psychiatric disorders
Limbic and frontal brain circuits underpin everyday experiences like mood, motivation, pleasure, and misery. Malfunction of those circuits causes psychiatric problems including depression, anxiety, and addiction.
Our overall objectives are to understand how these neural circuits are dysregulated and to develop novel, circuit-targeted interventions that return the brain to a healthy state.
Learn more about our research
Project 1
Noninvasive Modulation of Deep Brain Circuits for Treatment-Resistant Depression
Our team has recently developed an MRI-compatible ultrasonic neuromodulation device that can noninvasively stimulate deep brain circuits in humans with high precision. This project is applying this novel approach to modulate the subcallosal cingulate cortex in individuals with treatment-resistant depression.
Sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Project 2
Ultrasonic Neuromodulation for Individuals Using Opioids for Chronic Pain
This project is evaluating a new kind of noninvasive brain stimulation intervention that might be useful for preventing opioid use disorder. Individuals with chronic pain receive low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound delivered to deep brain circuits.
Sponsored by the Wellcome Trust
Project 3
TRANSCEND: Treatment Resistant Depression Subcallosal Cingulate Network DBS
This clinical trial is evaluating the efficacy of tractography-guided deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy for highly treatment-resistant depression.
Sponsored by Abbott
Project 4
REaKT-SD: Rapid Reversal of Suicidal Depression: Comparative Effectiveness of ECT vs. Ketamine over the Lifespan
This randomized trial is comparing the effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy versus intravenous ketamine therapy for acute suicidal depression.
Sponsored by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)
Project 5
RECOVER: A PRospective, Multi-cEnter, Randomized Controlled Blinded Trial DemOnstrating the Safety and Effectiveness of VNS Therapy® System as AdjunctivE Therapy Versus a No-Stimulation Control in Subjects With Treatment-Resistant Depression
The objective of this study is to determine whether vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy improves health outcomes for individuals with treatment resistant depression.
Sponsored by LivaNova
Meet our research team
Principal Investigator
Brian J. Mickey, MD, PhD
Dr. Mickey is board-certified in Psychiatry. His clinical focus is treatment-resistant mood disorders. He provides pharmacologic treatments and brain stimulation interventions in the Treatment Resistant Mood Disorders Clinic at Huntsman Mental Health Institute.
Lab members
Selected Publications
- Tsunoda K, Webb T, Lybbert C, Wilson M, Mickey B, Kubanek J (2026). Noninvasive suppression of responses to threat using focused ultrasonic waves. J Neurosci, in press.
- Campbell JM, Horn A, Kious BM, Rahimpour S, Mickey BJ, Shofty B (2026). Tractography-guided DBS programming in treatment-resistant OCD: A case report and review of the literature. Biol Psychiatry, in press.
- Polcyn R, Arbon J, Hansen A, Gaudin A, Mickey BJ (2026). Ethical Considerations and Current Attitudes Towards Neuromodulation in Forensic Psychiatry. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law, in press.
- Richards JR, Pace BD, Lynch A, Weber AN, Vaidya J, Jawish R, Jones KG, Mickey BJ, Carnahan RM, and Trapp NT (2025). Dual-target theta burst rTMS in the treatment of methamphetamine use disorder: An open-label pilot clinical trial randomized by target sequence. Brain Stimul, 18(6), 1952-1954.
- Conway CR, Aaronson ST, Sackeim HA, George MS, Zajecka J, Bunker MT, Duffy W, Stedman M, Riva-Posse P, Allen RM, Quevedo J, Berger M, Alva G, Malik MA, Dunner DL, Cichowicz I, Banov M, Manu L, Nahas Z, Macaluso M, Mickey BJ, Sheline Y, Kriedt CL, Lee YL, Gordon C, Shy O, Tran Q, Yates L, Rush AJ (2025). Vagus nerve stimulation in treatment-resistant depression: A one-year, randomized, sham-controlled trial. Brain Stimul, 18(3), 676-689.
- Riis TS, Feldman DA, Kwon SS, Vonesh LC, Koppelmans V, Brown JR, Solzbacher D, Kubanek J, Mickey BJ (2025). Noninvasive Modulation of the Subcallosal Cingulate and Depression With Focused Ultrasonic Waves. Biol Psychiatry, 97(8), 825-834.
- Feldman DA, Jones KG, Vonesh LC, Jacobs R, Hoffman N, Lybbert C, Huang J, Kuck K, Odell D, Tadler SC, Mickey BJ (2025). Immediate effects of propofol on mood: a randomized comparison of two doses in a cohort with depression. Psychopharmacology (Berl), 242(3), 481-495.
- Trapp NT, Purgianto A, Taylor JJ, Singh MK, Oberman LM, Mickey BJ, Youssef NA, Solzbacher D, Zebley B, Cabrera LY, Conroy S, Cristancho M, Richards JR, Flood MJ, Barbour T, Blumberger DM, Taylor SF, Feifel D, Reti IM, McClintock SM, Lisanby SH, Husain MM, National Network of Depression Centers Neuromodulation Task Group (2025). Consensus review and considerations on TMS to treat depression: A comprehensive update endorsed by the National Network of Depression Centers, the Clinical TMS Society, and the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Clin Neurophysiol, 170, 206-233.
- Provenza NR, Reddy S, Allam AK, Rajesh SV, Diab N, Reyes G, Caston RM, Katlowitz KA, Gandhi AD, Bechtold RA, Dang HQ, Najera RA, Giridharan N, Kabotyanski KE, Momin F, Hasen M, Banks GP, Mickey BJ, Kious BM, Shofty B, Hayden BY, Herron JA, Storch EA, Patel AB, Goodman WK, Sheth SA (2025). Disruption of neural periodicity predicts clinical response after deep brain stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Nat Med, 30(10), 3004-3014.
- Jawish R, Smid M, Gordon A, Shangraw K, Mickey BJ (2024). Prolonged transcranial magnetic stimulation in a pregnant patient with treatment-resistant depression: a case report. J Med Case Rep, 18(1), 512.
- Riis T, Feldman D, Losser A, Mickey B, Kubanek J (2024). Device for Multifocal Delivery of Ultrasound Into Deep Brain Regions in Humans. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng, 71(2), 660-668.
- Riis TS, Feldman DA, Mickey BJ, Kubanek J (2024). Controlled noninvasive modulation of deep brain regions in humans. Commun Eng, 3, 13.
- Silcox JW, Mickey B, Payne BR (2023). Disruption to left inferior frontal cortex modulates semantic prediction effects in reading and subsequent memory: Evidence from simultaneous TMS-EEG. Psychophysiology, 60(9), e14312.
- Jones KG, Lybbert C, Euler MJ, Huang J, Lunt S, Richards SV, Jessop JE, Larson A, Odell DH, Kuck K, Tadler SC, Mickey BJ (2023). Diversity of electroencephalographic patterns during propofol-induced burst suppression. Front Syst Neurosci, 17, 1172856.
- Riis TS, Feldman DA, Vonesh LC, Brown JR, Solzbacher D, Kubanek J, Mickey BJ (2023). Durable effects of deep brain ultrasonic neuromodulation on major depression: a case report. J Med Case Rep, 17(1), 449.
Contact
Brian Mickey, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator