News Mentions for the week of June 24, 2024

NIA will host a series of five webinars exploring key issues in cognitive training, with the goal of identifying opportunities to advance the field. Feng Vankee Lin, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, is featured.

The three-pound organ that is the human brain is the command center for our thoughts, feelings, memories, behaviors and motor skills. Yet so much about it is still a mystery. Sergiu Pasca, the Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor II of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and Bonnie Uytengsu and Family Director of the Stanford Brain Organogenesis Program, has made it his life's work to understand how the brain builds itself. He's doing it by growing neural circuits in his lab at Stanford University.

Social media spread so rapidly that it became ubiquitous before anyone really knew how to deal with it — and critics say that’s in part due to “addictive” algorithms and feeds that can do more harm than good. As numerous states move to restrict social media access for kids and teens, Anna Lembke, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, explains how constant connection can be harmful and why governments, companies and families should consider policies that promote unplugging.

Trisha Suppes, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Michael Ostacher, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, discuss treatments for patients with bipolar disorder who also have substance abuse disorder.

CIGH has announced seventeen new seed grants, each of which tackles an emerging threat to global health, and each with the potential to one day save human lives. Congratulations to Ryan Matlow, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and colleagues, for the funded grant, "Implementation, feasibility, and effectiveness of a novel community-based social service navigation program for newcomer immigrant children and families."

In this episode, Stanford Medcast speaks with Nataly Beck, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Axel Valle, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, founders and directors of La Clínica Latina at Stanford Medicine, who specialize in culturally sensitive care for the Hispanic and Latino communities.

The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) has announced three new recipients of awards given by the Deeda Blair Research Initiative for Disorders of the Brain. Congratulations to Ryan Ash, instructor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, for his project on transcranial ultrasound suppressive stimulation (TUSS) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)!

Results from new clinical trials indicate that the groundbreaking obesity and diabetes medication tirzepatide also improved symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Oliver Sum-Ping, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, provides comment on the research.

The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation are delighted to announce the recipients of the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation Award in Translational Neuroscience 2024: Prof. Maria Pennuto (Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, Italy) and Prof. Sergiu Pasca (Stanford University, United States). Congratulations, Dr. Pasca!

Results from new clinical trials indicate that the groundbreaking obesity and diabetes medication tirzepatide also improved symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Oliver Sum-Ping, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, provides comment on the research.

This brief reviews the current landscape of LLMs developed for psychotherapy and proposes a framework for evaluating the readiness of these AI tools for clinical deployment. Shannon Wiltsey Stirman, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Jane P. Kim, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, co-author this brief along with colleagues.

Brain imaging, known as functional MRI, combined with machine learning can predict a treatment response based on one’s depression “biotype.” Leanne Williams, the Vincent V.C. Woo Professor professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Laura Hack, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, are quoted in this press release. Click here for more news coverage of this article.

In a new, large-scale study of sleep behavior, Stanford Medicine scientists found that night owls don’t really thrive late at night. Jamie Zeitzer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and Renske Lok, postdoctoral scholar in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, are interviewed about the findings. Follow more news coverage here.