Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been pitched as a scalable cognitive-enhancement tool for schizophrenia, where roughly 98% of patients show working-memory deficits, but a 2026 sham-controlled crossover trial from Ke et al. delivered the standard 1.5 mA anodal protocol over the right DLPFC to 27 stable patients and found no detectable benefit over sham.1 …
A 2026 medRxiv preprint reported that an at-home subcallosal cingulate cortex deep brain stimulation (SCC DBS) recording system could track stable recovery in severe treatment-resistant depression: in 7 analyzable patients, the local-field-potential biomarker predicted weekly recovery states with 0.72 ± 0.16 accuracy.1 The useful claim is not that brain recordings can diagnose depression broadly; it …
A 2026 secondary randomized-trial analysis found that low-intensity focused ultrasound and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation reached statistically similar 2-week post-treatment motor scores after subacute stroke, even though LIFU produced larger median Fugl–Meyer Assessment gains than rTMS: 7 vs. 2 upper-limb points and 3 vs. 1 lower-limb points.1 LIFU therefore carries the recovery-dynamics signal in this …
A 2026 case series of 10 adults with refractory postherpetic neuralgia found: 3 of 8 patients responded to a spinal cord stimulation trial, 2 kept meaningful 24-month relief after implantation, and 3 dorsal root entry zone lesioning cases reported 60-90% pain relief at 24 months.1 The data are too small to rank the procedures, but …
A 2026 first-in-human medRxiv preprint reported that closed-loop subgaleal intersectional short-pulse stimulation shortened stimulated seizures by 52% on average and reduced seizure incidence by 80.9% after 48 hours in 5 high-frequency therapy-resistant epilepsy patients. The signal is promising because it combines responsive seizure detection with electrode strips placed under the scalp rather than electrodes implanted …
Cognitive impairment in first-episode schizophrenia (FES) is the symptom that does the most work blocking employment, relationships, and independent living — and the symptom current antipsychotics barely move. A 2026 RCT by Hu et al. in Psychological Medicine tested whether 20 sessions of low-frequency rTMS targeting the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) could improve cognition where …
A 2026 systematic review of subcallosal cingulate (SCC) functional connectivity found 28 qualifying resting-state fMRI studies in depression: 21 rTMS/iTBS studies, 4 ECT studies, 3 focused-ultrasound studies, and 0 DBS or tDCS studies.1 That number is the useful correction: SCC DBS may still be biologically plausible, but the current fMRI connectivity literature mostly explains noninvasive …