Physiological recordings from electrodes implanted in the basal ganglia for deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease. The relevance of fast subthalamic rhythms

Summary

Deep brain stimulation electrodes implanted in the subthalamic nucleus of patients with Parkinson’s disease allow electrophysiological recordings from the human basal ganglia. Subthalamic local field potential recordings revealed the presence of multiple rhythms, from the classical EEG frequency range (<50 Hz), to surprisingly high frequencies (70 Hz and 300 Hz). Fast rhythms are particularly attractive because of their likely interaction with the excitatory mechanisms of action of deep brain stimulation. Here we investigated whether the two rhythms at 70 Hz and at 300 Hz represent distinct modes of operation, and therefore different targets, within the subthalamic nucleus. We retrospectively analyzed the dataset we used to describe the 300 Hz rhythm (Foffani, Priori et al., Brain 126: 2153–2163, 2003) searching for significant 70 Hz oscillations after levodopa administration. Whereas (as previously reported) 300 Hz activity was a consistent feature in the dataset, significant 70 Hz activity was observed in only 2 of 11 nuclei. Therefore, 70 Hz oscillations are not a necessary condition for the presence of 300 Hz oscillations. The two rhythms probably arise from different mechanisms, reflecting different functional and/or spatial aspects of subthalamic pathophysiology. Fast subthalamic oscillations could be exploited for intra-operative electrophysiological monitoring of the subthalamic nucleus, post-operative confirmation of electrode placement and patient-specific ‘reglage’ of the electrical parameters for chronic deep brain stimulation.