Ronald G. Garcia M.D., Ph.D
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Mass General Hospital & Harvard Medical School
Program Director of Neuromodulation Therapeutics, Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory of Sex Differences in the Brain, Mass General Hospital
Dr. Ronald Garcia is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His main research interests include the study of pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the comorbidity of major depression and cardiovascular disease as well as the development and translation of novel technologies that can be used for modulation of brain circuitry responsible for mood/anxiety and cardiovascular dysregulation in depressed individuals.
Dr. Garcia received a M.D. degree from Universidad Industrial de Santander, Colombia, and a Ph.D. degree in neuroscience from Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil. Before joining Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Garcia was Research Director at the Cardiovascular Foundation of Colombia (2010-2012) and conducted research and published extensively on cardiac autonomic dysregulation and vascular dysfunction in patients with hypertension-related conditions, mood disorders and cardio- and cerebro-vascular diseases. Since 2012, Dr. Garcia is based in the US, where he has been involved in the development of functional neuroimaging studies aimed to identify central mechanisms of cardiac and vascular regulation.
In addition, in collaboration with Dr. Jill Goldstein at the Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory of Sex Differences in the Brain and Dr. Vitaly Napadow at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Dr. Garcia’s research has been oriented to the evaluation and optimization of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation as a potential neuromodulatory intervention for sex-dependent alterations in the brain circuitry controlling mood and autonomic tone in major depression. His long-term research interests include the development and clinical translation of this and other non-invasive neuromodulation tools for the treatment of psychiatric disorders and their comorbidity with cardiovascular disease.
Publications
Garcia RG, Cohen JE, Stanford AD, Gabriel A, Stowell J, Aizley H, Barbieri R, Gitlin D, Napadow V, Goldstein JM. Respiratory-gated auricular vagal afferent nerve stimulation (RAVANS) modulates brain response to stress in major depression. J Psychiatr Res. 2021 Oct;142:188-197. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.07.048. Epub 2021 Aug 2. PubMed PMID: 34365067; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8429271.
Garcia RG, Mareckova K, Holsen LM, Cohen JE, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Napadow V, Barbieri R, Goldstein JM. Impact of sex and depressed mood on the central regulation of cardiac autonomic function. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2020 Jul;45(8):1280-1288. doi: 10.1038/s41386-020-0651-x. Epub 2020 Mar 9. PubMed PMID: 32152473; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7298013.
Staley R, Garcia RG, Stowell J, Sclocco R, Fisher H, Napadow V, Goldstein JM, Barbieri R. Modulatory Effects of Respiratory-Gated Auricular Vagal Nerve Stimulation on Cardiovagal Activity in Hypertension. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2020 Jul;2020:2581-2584. doi: 10.1109/EMBC44109.2020.9175768. PubMed PMID: 33018534.
Sclocco R, Garcia RG, Kettner NW, Fisher HP, Isenburg K, Makarovsky M, Stowell JA, Goldstein J, Barbieri R, Napadow V. Stimulus frequency modulates brainstem response to respiratory-gated transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation. Brain Stimul. 2020 Jul - Aug;13(4):970-978. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2020.03.011. Epub 2020 Mar 27. PubMed PMID: 32380448; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7931850.
Sclocco R, Garcia RG, Kettner NW, Isenburg K, Fisher HP, Hubbard CS, Ay I, Polimeni JR, Goldstein J, Makris N, Toschi N, Barbieri R, Napadow V. The influence of respiration on brainstem and cardiovagal response to auricular vagus nerve stimulation: A multimodal ultrahigh-field (7T) fMRI study. Brain Stimul. 2019 Jul - Aug;12(4):911-921. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2019.02.003. Epub 2019 Feb 10. PubMed PMID: 30803865; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6592731.
Garcia RG, Lin RL, Lee J, Kim J, Barbieri R, Sclocco R, Wasan AD, Edwards RR, Rosen BR, Hadjikhani N, Napadow V. Modulation of brainstem activity and connectivity by respiratory-gated auricular vagal afferent nerve stimulation in migraine patients. Pain. 2017 Aug;158(8):1461-1472. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000930. PubMed PMID: 28541256; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5517046.