MISSION: The goal of the Laboratory for Brain Network Imaging and Modulation, part of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, is to develop new treatments for patients with brain disease by mapping symptoms onto brain circuits and then modulating these circuits to provide symptom relief.

1. Mapping symptoms onto brain circuits: The first step is identifying a therapeutic target, a location or circuit in the brain where we can intervene to improve a symptom.  To identify targets, we focus on causal sources of information such lesion locations or brain stimulation sites. We combine these causal sources of information with a wiring diagram of the human brain termed the “human connectome” derived from resting state functional connectivity or diffusion tractography MRI.  This approach of mapping symptoms onto brain circuits is referred to as lesion network mapping, DBS network mapping, or TMS network mapping. 
2. Targeting brain circuits for symptom relief: Second, we target these circuits with neuromodulation interventions to provide symptom relief, with a focus on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), deep brain stimulation (DBS), and focused ultrasound (FUS). We have also explored transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS).

HISTORY: The Laboratory for Brain Network Imaging and Modulation was founded in 2014 by Dr. Michael Fox at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center / Harvard Medical School in collaboration with the Berenson Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, the Beth Israel Deep Brain Stimulation Program, and the Martino’s Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital.  In 2020, the Laboratory moved to Brigham and Women’s Hospital and expanded to become the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics.  The Center now includes over 50 Brigham faculty members across Neurology, Psychiatry, Neurosurgery, and Radiology and offers treatment with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Deep Brain Stimulation, and Focused Ultrasound.  The Laboratory for Brain Network Imaging and Modulation remains one of the many research Labs that are part of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics.

COLLABORATION: Critical to the above mission is collaboration across labs, departments, institutions, and countries. As such, we are proud to have core faculty members across the Harvard Medical School Community including Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  We are also grateful for our extended network of national and international collaborators who have partnered with us in achieving our mission.   

Michael D. Fox, MD, PhD, is the founding Director of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He is also the inaugural Raymond D. Adams Distinguished Chair of Neurology and the Kaye Family Research Director of Brain Stimulation.

He completed a degree in Electrical Engineering at Ohio State University, an MD and PhD at Washington University in St. Louis, and Neurology Residency and Movement Disorders Fellowship at Mass Gen Brigham. Clinically, he specializes in the use of invasive and noninvasive brain stimulation for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric symptoms.

Dr. Fox’s research focuses on developing new and improved treatments for brain disease by understanding brain circuits and the effects of neuromodulation.  His papers have been cited over 33,000 times and he has won multiple awards, including the inaugural Trailblazer Prize for Clinician Scientists from the NIH, a single award across all medical specialties for advances in translational research.