The Sci-Files – 11/15/2020 – Marissa and Emily – The Use of Electric and Magnetic Stimulation in the Treatment of Depression
November 16, 2020


On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Marissa Cortright and Emily Castillo. Emily and Marissa investigate the views of psychiatrists, patients with depression, and the general public on Psychiatric Electroceutical Interventions (PEIs), or technologies that use electrical or magnetic stimulation in the treatment of depression. These PEIs include electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), deep brain stimulation (DBS), and adaptive brain implants (ABI). They study various neuroethical themes, including perceived invasiveness and the effect on personality/sense of self. Their research is part of an NIH BRAIN grant and will be used to inform a national survey. Understanding these perceptions about invasiveness and sense of self is important because it will help improve clinician’s conversations with patients, inform policies surrounding their use, and contribute to public understanding of these interventions. If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at [email protected] You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Chelsie is a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student at Michigan State University. She studies what happens to the extracellular matrix of cells after they have been stressed. She co-hosts "The Sci-Files" with Daniel Puentes. Together they explore the different topics that MSU students research on "The Sci-Files" at WDBM.

Daniel is a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, where he does research at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. His research involves measuring the mass of radioactive nuclei, and how it can tell us how protons and neutrons are arranged inside of a nucleus. This research also helps scientists understand how the elements were created in different stellar environments! At WDBM, he and Chelsie Boodoo co-host The Sci-Files.