Helen S. Mayberg

Helen S. Mayberg is an American behavioral neurologist known for her pioneering work in deep brain stimulation and brain circuits involved in depression.

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Born in 1956 in Southern California, Helen S. Mayberg received her undergraduate degree in psychobiology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1976. She then went on to complete her MD from the University of Southern California School of Medicine in 1981.

Early in her career, Mayberg deployed imaging technologies including positron emission tomography (PET), and later functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at depression's effect on the brain, stepping beyond the more common neurochemical focus of the time. She identified Brodmann area 25 (the subcallosal cingulate region) as a critical brain hub, finding that overactivity in this area  is associated with treatment-resistant depression. Mayberg targeted this area using deep brain stimulation (DBS), leading to a novel and strikingly effective therapy for depression.

Today, Mayberg is the founding director of The Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where her work on DBS for depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders is ongoing.

Mayberg has received numerous awards for her innovative work in understanding  depression and its treatment. In 2008, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine; in 2014, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; in 2016, the National Academy of Inventors; and in 2022, the National Academy of Sciences. 

About the Author

Cyrenna Cooper

Cyrenna Cooper is the BrainFacts Web Editor. She graduated from George Mason University in 2017 with a degree in Communications.