Fulfilling the Promise of Noninvasive Brain Stimulation as a Precision Medicine Tool
Tuesday, January 14, 2025, 2:00 pm EST
Heightened activation of a fight-or-flight system in response to stress or perceived threat is a key factor that maintains anxiety, trauma-related, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. While current treatments aim to reduce symptoms by lowering fight/ flight responding, available approaches can be challenging and have variable benefit – suggesting a need for more effective ways to achieve fight/ flight reduction. With this in mind, Dr. Sege’s presentation will discuss advancements in understanding the neurobiology of fight-or-flight responding and ability to directly target that neurobiology using noninvasive brain stimulation. He will present data demonstrating how innate neurobiological threat or stress responses can be measured with neuroimaging tools and modified with neuromodulation technologies. When discussing modification, Dr. Sege will focus on two especially promising technologies – transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial focused ultrasound. He will also discuss how the use of these technologies can lead to developing new treatments for individuals with anxiety and related concerns.
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Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Medical University of South Carolina
2023 Young Investigator Grant
Dr. Christopher Sege is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Brain Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). He directs the MUSC Institute of Psychiatry Interdisciplinary Psychophysiology Lab and is a lead clinical psychology researcher and provider in both the Brain Stimulation and Sleep and Anxiety Treatment and Research Divisions of the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Sege obtained an NIMH career development award (K23), and he is currently generously supported by this and a BBRF Young Investigator grant. He uses various advanced neuroimaging and neuromodulation techniques to understand and target underlying psychological processes that drive clinically impairing anxiety and related concerns. His long-term goal is to transform the treatment of anxiety and related concerns so that it is more universally effective for all who seek it.
Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., serves as the President & CEO of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the largest private funder of mental health research grants. Dr. Borenstein developed the Emmy-nominated public television program “Healthy Minds,” and serves as host and executive producer of the series. The program, broadcast nationwide, is available online, and focuses on topics in psychiatry in order to educate the public, reduce stigma and offer a message of hope. Dr. Borenstein served as Editor-in-Chief of Psychiatric News, the newspaper of the American Psychiatric Association from 2012 - 2023.
Dr. Borenstein is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and serves as the Chair of the Section of Psychiatry at the Academy. He also has served as the President of the New York State Psychiatric Association. Dr. Borenstein earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard and his medical degree at New York University.
