Across several deep-brain-stimulation cohorts, lasting depression relief lined up with three white-matter pathways

What the research found

Study (reanalysis of clinical cohorts). Ki Sueng Choi, Helen Mayberg, and colleagues at Mount Sinai report in the American Journal of Psychiatry (2026; 183(10):764; DOI 10.1176/appi.ajp.20250449), first published 1 Oct 2026 and summarized by ScienceDaily on 18 Oct 2026. They pooled the largest multi-cohort set so far of people who received subcallosal cingulate deep brain stimulation for severe depression that had not responded to usual care, including the BROADEN trial and a University of Toronto cohort. Lasting improvement lined up with stimulation reaching three white-matter paths: the cingulum bundle, forceps minor, and the medial uncinate fasciculus / ventral amygdalofugal pathway. People who had not improved after two years shared a lack of stimulation of the left cingulum bundle. The team did not test whether moving those electrodes would help. Many scans used an average brain map rather than each person's own diffusion MRI. Electrode placement is not the whole story. Several authors consult for Abbott, which makes the device and supplied BROADEN data but did not design this analysis. This is not a recommendation to seek surgery. Not medical advice.

Evidence level: Human study. A study in people, but an association isn't proof of cause.

Read the original at Mount Sinai / American Journal of Psychiatry