Mark S. George, MD
Dr. George is an expert in the use of brain imaging and stimulation to understand depression and devise new antidepressant treatments.
In early research at the NIMH, he was one of the first scientists to expand the study of brain imaging technology for psychiatric disorders.
He discovered specific brain changes that activated during normal emotions (orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, insula, medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus), and began exploring brain changes in depression and mania.
This led to his using a noninvasive brain stimulation method, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), for treating patients with treatment-resistant depression, as well as his work with other forms of brain stimulation such as vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS).
He was a philosophy undergraduate major from Davidson College (1980), and received his medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) (1985).
He then completed dual residencies in Neurology and Psychiatry, and is double boarded.
He began his research career at Queen’s Square in London (1990) and used brain imaging (PET) and then TMS to begin to address neuroscience questions.
At the NIH (1991) he did his initial studies with FDG and O15 PET, and then excitedly moved the bulk of his work to fMRI.
He continued to work with TMS as a research and clinical tool.
in 1995 he left the NIH to start brain imaging research at MUSC, and was the founding director of the campus-wide Center for Advanced Imaging Research for 10 years.
He also launched the translational brain stimulation laboratory (BSL) in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences.
He has used existing technologies to answer neuroscience questions, and has innovated new technologies, particularly combining brain stimulation with fMRI.
He is also Editor-in-Chief of Brain Stimulation.
