Team profile by Jonathan Young, Carri Polick, Dana Rubenstein, Kimi Du, Eunice Lee, Sonya Eason, Anna Grace Greenho, Dani Castillo, Catie Fristoe, Ali Watson, Annie Kim, Caroline Yoon, Suzanna Thompson, Trevor Drummond and Jean Beckham

In response to the alarming statistics surrounding tobacco use among individuals with mental illness, particularly veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), our project aimed to investigate the potential of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as a novel intervention for smoking cessation in this clinical population. With tobacco-related deaths surpassing those from AIDS, illicit drugs, alcohol use, auto accidents, suicide and homicides combined, innovative approaches are critical.

Leveraging the promising capacity of rTMS to modulate neurocircuitry implicated in substance use disorders, our team contributed to a longitudinal intervention study focusing on veterans with PTSD. Through a comprehensive approach integrating active versus “sham” rTMS alongside cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), this ongoing randomized controlled study aims to evaluate the feasibility, impact on smoking outcomes and neural target engagement of our TMS intervention.

Our team analyzed data from a previously completed pilot study on the TMS intervention, which resulted in an accepted abstract and presentation at Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT). Several manuscripts based on the pilot study are in preparation.

Students were members of one of three subteams with different areas of focus: clinical, neuroimaging and artificial intelligence (AI) - WIKIStim. The clinical subteam consisted of Dana Rubenstein, Anna Grace Greenho, Dani Castillo, Eunice Lee and Catie Fristoe. In addition to contributing to study procedures, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and rTMS treatments, this subteam contributed to a manuscript peer review for the journal, Psychiatry Research. This subteam also helped develop REDCap measures for the ongoing study.

The neuroimaging subteam consisted of Ali Watson, Annie Kim, Kimi Du, and Caroline Yoon. This subteam received training in the foundations of neuroimaging and an introduction to MRI analysis using Conn. This team also contributed to a manuscript peer review for the journal, Imaging Neuroscience.

The artificial intelligence (AI) - WIKIStim subteam consisted of Suzanna Thompson and Sonya Eason, who sought to improve an existing research literature site, WIKIstim.org, which was originally created to streamline access to metadata from neuromodulation articles. Given the need to manually extract this information, developing a way to automate this process would make the platform more sustainable.

This subteam used existing large language models, specifically OpenAI’s GPT, to automate the extraction of specific information fields such as number of participants and study design. The subteam effectively tuned, tested, refined and evaluated a model for this purpose.

Future steps include model implementation with the site as well as further tuning as needed. This team also contributed to a review article on noninvasive brain stimulation for the treatment and prevention of opioid use disorder.

Noninvasive Neuromodulation for Addiction

Poster by Dana Rubenstein, Dani Castillo, Anna Grace Greenho, Catie Fristoe, Eunice Lee, Aliyah Watson, Eunjae Lee, Kunyu Du, Caroline Yoon, Suzanna Thompson, Sonya Eason, Yewon Lee, Jonathan Young, Carri Polick, Jean Beckham and Trevor Drummond