Clinical neurology and neurosurgery
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Clin Neurol Neurosurg · Feb 2009
Clinical and cerebral activity changes induced by subthalamic nucleus stimulation in advanced Parkinson's disease: a prospective case-control study.
High-frequency stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) improves motor symptoms in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD), but the mechanisms are still unclear. Functional imaging evidenced pathological overactivity in motor cortical areas in advanced PD that can be normalized by effective therapies. ⋯ Effective STN-DBS is associated with neuronal activity changes in brain regions implicated in movement programming and performance. We hypothesize that clinical benefit might be associated with stimulation-induced normalization of the abnormal overactivity within the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical motor loop in advanced PD.