Motor and Cognitive Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation in Patients with Parkinson's Disease Studied

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment alternative for Parkinson's disease patients with an inadequate response to drug treatments. Motor and cognitive effects of deep brain stimulation in patients with Parkinson's disease has been studied by a team of researchers from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin.//

Their results show that the adverse cognitive effects of deep brain stimulation are linked to a different neural pathway than that responsible for the treatment's desired motor effects.

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‘Deep brain stimulation (DBS) can help improve the quality of life of patients with Parkinson's disease and can help with cognitive processes, like decision-making and response modulation.’

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This finding will help optimize treatments for patients with Parkinson's disease. Results from this research have been published in Brain.

DBS targets the subthalamic nucleus, which forms part of the diencephalon, a division of the forebrain.

The subthalamic nucleus integrates information from different neurons and is primarily responsible for motor processes, but also plays an important role in cognitive processes, such as decision-making and response modulation.

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Researchers from Charité's Department of Neurology on Campus Charité Mitte have studied the effect of DBS on both cognitive and motor pathways.

By combining behavioral experiments with brain mapping and computational modeling, the researchers were able to show that effects on motor function - such as improvements in motor control - are mediated by different neural pathways to those responsible for unwanted cognitive effects, such as premature actions in situations involving a decision-making process.

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Among Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, female, black, Asian patients are substantially less likely to receive proven deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery to improve motor symptoms or tremors.

These findings enhance our understanding of the neuronal networks affected by Parkinson's disease, deliver insights into the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease, and enable us to draw conclusions regarding the mechanism of action of DBS.

"Only an improved understanding of the treatment's mechanism of action will allow us to make deep brain stimulation more effective, thus enabling us to improve the quality of life of patients with Parkinson's disease through a reduction in the side effects of treatment," explains the study's first author, Dr. Wolf-Julian Neumann, a researcher at the Department of Neurology.

DBS Treatment Reduces Tremor in Parkinson's Patients at an Early-stage
Parkinson’s disease patients can reduce the progression of tremor with the help of deep brain stimulation (DBS) when used at an early-stage, as there is no treatment for Parkinson's. This is considered a remarkable finding.

As a next step, the researchers from the Movement Disorders Working Group are hoping to use measurements of neural activity to differentiate between disease-specific patterns of neural activity and patterns found in healthy individuals.

"This will allow us to adapt brain stimulation treatments according to the needs of the individual patient and in real time.

"It is an important step on the way to developing an intelligent, personalized and demand-adapted treatment," says Working Group Leader Prof. Dr. Andrea A. Kühn of the Department of Neurology.

Source-Eurekalert