Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program

Education:

• B.Sc. (Honours), 2008, life sciences, Queen’s University, Canada
• MD, 2012, University of Toronto, Canada
• FRCPC, 2017, neurology, U of T, Canada
• Cognitive neurology fellowship, 2019, Harvard Medical School, U.S.
• Harvard Catalyst Clinical and Translational Research Academy, 2019, Harvard Medical School, U.S.

Appointments and Affiliations:

• Associate scientist, Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute
• Medical director, Traumatic Brain Injury Recovery Program, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• Neuropsychiatry lead, U of T Neurology Residency Program
• Scientist, Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• Assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry, U of T
• Affiliate instructor, Harvard Medical School

Research Foci:

• Neuropsychiatry
• Placebo and Nocebo effects
• Noninvasive brain stimulation
• Brain network mapping
• Concussion or traumatic brain injury
• Functional neurological disorders

Research Summary:

Dr. Burke’s research focuses on trying to understand and treat disorders at the interface between neurology and psychiatry. These include concussion or traumatic brain injury, functional neurological disorders, migraine and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

Prior to joining Sunnybrook Research Institute, he completed the Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation Fellowship in the Clinical Neurosciences at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. This clinical research fellowship provided him with training in novel noninvasive brain stimulation techniques and brain network mapping analyses. His current research looks to apply such approaches to investigate these complex and poorly understood brain disorders.

Dr. Burke also has an active line of research interrogating the neurobiology of placebo effects and how placebo effects may meaningfully modulate brain networks. Though placebo effects were once considered a nuisance in medicine, he believes that they offer new insights for translational research and can be leveraged to optimize clinical practice. His work in this area has led to international media attention on platforms like CNN and BBC.

His research is funded by many local and national grants has resulted in multiple high-level peer-reviewed publications. He has made many meaningful academic contributions in the field of neuropsychiatry and has been recognized with the American Neuropsychiatric Association's 2019 Young Investigator Award and 2023 Career Development Award.

Selected Publications:

See current publications list at PubMed.

1. Burke MJ. “It’s All in Your Head” – Medicine’s Silent Epidemic. JAMA Neurology 2019; 76(12):1417-8.
2. Burke MJ, Joutsa J, Cohen AL, Soussand L, Cooke D, Burstein R, Fox MD. Mapping Migraine to a Common Brain Network. Brain 2020:143(2):541-53.
3. Burke MJ, Blumberger DM. Caution at psychiatry's psychedelic frontier. Nature Medicine. 2021;27(10):1687-1688.
4. Burke MJ, Romanella SM, Mencarelli L, Greben R, Fox MD, Kaptchuk TJ, Pascual-Leone A, Santarnecchi E. Placebo effects and neuromodulation for depression: a meta-analysis and evaluation of shared mechanisms. Molecular Psychiatry. 2022;27(3):1658-66.
5. Burke MJ. A fundamental change is needed for appraising placebo responses in psychiatry. Lancet Psychiatry. 2023;10(5):316-7.

Related News and Stories:

• ‘Hardcore science’ or ‘just a sticker’ – do anti-anxiety patches actually work?, The Guardian (September 2023)
• Concussion-related CTE brain disease found in 1st female athlete, CBC National News (July 2023)
• NHL star Henri Richard had CTE, family reveals, CBC The Current with Matt Galloway (June 2023)
• Concussion symptoms may last longer than previously thought, study suggests, CBC National News (May 2023)
• His brain was inflamed. Suddenly the line between physical and mental health began to blur, CBC News (February 2023)
• After years of perplexing symptoms, Darryl finally got an answer — and relief, The Globe and Mail (September 2022)
• Placebos could save lives and health care dollars: so why can’t mainstream medicine put them to better use?, The Globe and Mail (October 2019)
• Publications by Sunnybrook Research Institute brain scientists were journal's most talked about in 2019: Entries in JAMA Neurology ranked first and second in attention received (Jan. 24, 2020)
• Does Goop need science when it has Gwyneth Paltrow?, CNN (April 6, 2019)
• The placebo paradox, BBC Radio (Feb. 18, 2019)

Related Links:

• Sunnybrook Neuropsychiatry Program
• Sunnybrook Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic
• Harvard Program in Placebo Studies