The subthalamic nucleus (STN), a component of the basal ganglia motor system, sends an excitatory amino acid (EAA)-containing projection to the ventral pallidum (VP), a major limbic system output region. The VP contains both NMDA and AMPA subtypes of EAA receptors. To characterize the physiology of the subthalamic pathway to the VP, and to determine the influence of EAA receptor subtypes, in vi...

The subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a key structure for somatic motor control via the basal ganglia. In the present study, we demonstrate that the STN of the macaque monkey has dual sets of body part representations. Each of the two separate portions of the STN is characterized with somatotopically arranged direct cortical inputs that are derived from the primary motor cortex (MI) and the suppleme...

background: non motor symptoms (nms) of idiopathic parkinson’s disease (pd) are a major cause of disability and recognition of these symptoms and treatment is important for comprehensive health care. deep   brain   stimulation   of   bilateral   subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (stn dbs) has been shown to improve motor symptoms in pd and effects on nms are unknown. to investigate the ...

Hanajima, Ritsuko, Robert Chen, Peter Ashby, Andres M. Lozano, William D. Hutchison, Karen D. Davis, and Jonathan O. Dostrovsky. Very fast oscillations evoked by median nerve stimulation in the human thalamus and subthalamic nucleus. J Neurophysiol 92: 3171–3182, 2004. First published May 19, 2004; doi:10.1152/ jn.00363.2004. Very fast oscillations (VFOs; 500–1,500 Hz) are associated with senso...

High-frequency stimulation (HFS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is now recognized as an effective treatment for advanced Parkinson's disease, but the molecular basis of its effects remains unknown. This study examined the effects of unilateral STN HFS (2 hr of continuous stimulation) in intact and hemiparkinsonian awake rats on STN neuron metabolic activity and on neurotransmitter-related gen...

Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder caused by dopamine depletion in the basal ganglia. Abnormally synchronized neuronal oscillations between 8 and 15 Hz in the basal ganglia are implicated in motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. However, how these abnormal oscillations are generated and maintained in the dopamine-depleted state is unknown. Based on neural recordings in a primate model ...

OBJECTIVE To study the possibility of Chinese visible human (CVH) head datasets as brain atlas for locating the subthalamic nucleus (STN) before deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery. METHODS Optimal head axial and coronal 3.0T, T2-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRI) of 30 patients were obtained. Cross-sectional head images of four CVH head datasets were chosen to establish an average CVH...

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience progressive neurological decline, and future interventional therapies are thought to show most promise in early stages of the disease. There is much interest in therapies that target the subthalamic nucleus (STN) with surgical access. While locating STN in advanced disease patients (Hoehn-Yahr Stage III or IV) is well understood and routinely pe...

Electrical high frequency stimulation (HFS) in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) has been shown to have a therapeutic effect in several movement disorders. But, debilitating psychiatric effects like depression and suicidality are occasionally seen and might be caused by the changes in the serotoninergic activity. Previous studies could show that HFS of the STN results in inhibition of the serotoner...

Ventral pallidum (VP) is a well-established locus for the reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse and reinstatement of drug seeking. However, VP neurons are at the origin of multiple output pathways, with strong projections to ventral tegmental area (VTA), subthalamic nucleus (STN), lateral hypothalamus, among others, and the roles of these VP output pathways in reinstatement of drug seeking rema...