in the success rate of the trial after the trial was halted. As a result, she resumed research on her hypothesis. Area 25 is connected to parts of the brain that are related to observable depression traits, such as appetite and sleeping habits. Her hypothesis is sometimes described as a pacemaker for the brain: electronic pulses that correct both the cause and the symptoms of depression. Current research looks into why some patients respond to DBS and others do not. To this end, a study led by Dr. Mayberg showed that brief intraoperative exposure to therapeutic stimulation at the time of implantation surgery induces rapid and consistent electrophysiological brain state change—indexed by a decrease in Beta wave measured at the site of stimulation. These intraoperative brain state changes are seen in individual subjects and are correlated with a significant and sustained reduction in depressive symptoms outside of the operating room without additional stimulation, establishing reduction in beta power as a novel biomarker for DBS treatment optimization. Grants A partial list of recent grants: Related activities Meditation and depression In 2017, Mayberg and the 14th Dali Lama of Tibet attended a conference on mindfulness and the impact of meditation on the brain. The Dali Lama was interested in whether the brain impacts the mind or if it might be the other way around. Mayberg pointed out the impact of DBS on severely depressed individuals. Their informal hypothesis was that, based on experiments that examined brain behavior from people practicing meditation, and experiments involving DBS, it was likely that meditation could improve brain waves that are important to mental health — yet when a patient experiences a certain degree of depression, it takes biological treatment to restore the patient to where they can meditate at all. Neuroethics One issue surrounding DBS is that it stands to change a patient’s identity or cause other undesirable emotional or biological conditions. The rebuttal is that severely depressed individuals often have lost a sense of self and that invasive procedures can block the barrier that might be the root cause of the loss of self, thereby restoring it. Mayberg gave a presentation in 2014 at the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, where she expressed her clinical and experiential lessons in neuroethics. Her commentary focused on how severely depressed patients are rarely irrational, and that there needs to be open communication and a two-way