BIOBRIEF
A 50 patient study mapped a 20–35 Hz rhythm between a deep brain structure and frontal cortex that explains who benefits from the implant therapy.
Deep brain stimulation, an established implant therapy for the movement symptoms of Parkinson's disease, tunes a fast brain signal between a deep brain structure and the frontal cortex, according to a new multi-institution study in the journal Brain.
The team, from University Hospitals of Cologne and Düsseldorf, Harvard Medical School, and Charité Berlin, combined recordings from implanted electrodes with magnetoencephalography, a non-invasive scan of the brain's magnetic fields, to map where in the brain and at what frequency the therapy takes hold. The cohort covered 50 patients and 100 brain hemispheres, per the University of Cologne and a ScienceDaily summary.
A network linking the subthalamic nucleus (the standard DBS target) to frontal regions communicates primarily in the high-beta band, 20–35 Hz. The strength of that connection in each patient predicted how much their motor symptoms improved after the implant was turned on. Prof. Dr. Andreas Horn of Cologne led the study; first author Dr. Bahne Bahners is at Düsseldorf University Hospital.
Whether steering DBS specifically to the 20–35 Hz band will produce better outcomes than current practice is the next clinical question; the paper identifies a target, not a new therapy. The preprint is also available on medRxiv.