Subthalamic Local Field Beta Oscillations during Ongoing Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease in Hyperacute and Chronic Phases

In the past years, local field potential (LFP) signals recorded from the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in patients undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease (PD) disclosed that DBS has a controversial effect on STN beta oscillations recorded 2-7 days after surgery for macroelectrode implantation. Nothing is known about these DBS-induced oscillatory changes 30 days after surgery. We recorded STN LFPs during ongoing DBS in 7 patients with PD, immediately (hyperacute phase) and 30 days (chronic phase) after surgery. STN LFP recordings showed stationary intranuclear STN beta LFP activity in hyperacute and chronic phases, confirming that beta peaks were also present in chronic recordings. Power spectra of nuclei with significant beta activity (54% of the sample) showed that it decreased significantly during DBS (p = 0.021) under both recording conditions. The time course of beta activity showed more evident DBS-induced changes in the chronic than in the hyperacute phase (p = 0.014). DBS-induced changes in STN beta LFPs in patients undergoing DBS in chronic phase provide useful information for developing a new neurosignal-controlled adaptive DBS system. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel