Dr. Casey Halpern

And we believe we did do that.

It was a single case study where we tried to optimize where our electrode was placed.

So we had some proof of concept that we would be able to elicit a sort of disease specific symptom in the operating room, assuming the patient could tolerate being awake.

Not everybody needs to be awake for this procedure, but at least for these first in human trials where

We're trying to establish where in the brain we need to be.

I think this type of approach is really critical.

We need to embrace non-invasive approaches.

Some of them are a little fluffy in that we don't understand how they work.

We don't necessarily understand how deep brain stimulation works, by the way.

But because we don't know exactly how they work, they're not as precise as we would like them to be.

So we have work to do there.

And I actually think that work is doable and actually underway.

TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation, it is FDA approved for depression, by the way, it's also FDA approved for OCD and for nicotine addiction.

We believe we can use TMS to define a circuit that, if modulated, improves OCD, albeit temporarily.

And in those patients, if it's temporary, they would be appropriate for an invasive study.

So something we're actively working on.

I've always believed that neurosurgeons need to be part of the discussion with these non-invasive approaches.

We don't need to do them, but I think we can help make them more precise and to probe non-invasively with purpose.

Perhaps one day there will be a TMS target for anorexia and obesity.

If we are scratching the surface with invasive approaches to these problems, we're even doing less with the brain stimulation.