Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation Shows Promise in Enhancing Parkinson Disease Treatment

Personalized adaptive deep brain stimulation (DBS) may offer better control of motor symptoms and enhance quality of life compared to standard treatment approaches in Parkinson disease (PD), according to a study published in Nature Medicine.

DBS is widely used to treat PD, but dynamic responsiveness to changing clinical and neural states is lacking.

“Here we present the results of a blinded randomized cross-over pilot trial aimed at determining the neural correlates of specific motor signs in individuals with PD and the feasibility of using these signals to drive adaptive DBS,” according to Carina Oehrn, Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco in San Francisco, CA, and coauthors.

The trial involved 4 male patients with PD who had undergone DBS implantation. Each participant received both adaptive and continuous DBS at different times, allowing for a direct comparison of the 2 methods. The researchers identified specific brain activity signals in the subthalamic nucleus and motor cortex that reliably indicated fluctuations in dopamine levels and associated motor symptoms.

Using these personalized biomarkers, the team developed an adaptive stimulation system that could adjust the intensity of brain stimulation in real time based on the patient's changing needs. The results were promising: patients experienced improved motor control and reported an enhanced quality of life with adaptive DBS compared with the clinically optimized standard version.

Reference

Oehrn CR, Cernera S, Hammer LH, et al. Chronic adaptive deep brain stimulation versus conventional stimulation in Parkinson's disease: a blinded randomized feasibility trial. Nat Med. doi:10.1038/s41591-024-03196-z