Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus is the standard of care for treating medically intractable Parkinson's disease. Although the adjunct of microelectrode recording improves the targeting accuracy of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation in comparison with image guidance alone, there has been no investigation of the financial cost of intraoperative microelectrode recording. T...

The effect of cannabinoids on the excitatory input to the substantia nigra reticulata (SNr) from the subthalamic nucleus was explored. For this purpose a knife cut was performed rostral to the subthalamic nucleus to isolate the subthalamic nucleus and the SNr from the striatum, a major source of cannabinoid receptors to the SNr. The data showed that the cannabinoid agonist WIN55,212-2 blocked t...

Cortico-basal ganglia circuits are organized in parallel channels. Information flow from functionally distinct cortical areas remains segregated within the striatum and through its direct projections to basal ganglia output structures. Whether such a segregation is maintained in trans-subthalamic circuits is still questioned. The effects of electrical stimulation of prefrontal, motor, and audit...

The identity of the neurotransmitter of subthalamic nucleus neurons has not been definitively established. GABA, glycine, and glutamate have all been hypothesized to be the neurotransmitter of these neurons. Immunohistochemistry with 3 well characterized antisera against glutamate, GABA, and glycine were used to study feline subthalamic nucleus neurons. These neurons were found to contain inten...

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) at the subthalamic nucleus has been approved as an effective treatment for refractory symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). Studies have shown that bilateral DBS surgery in PD patients results in clinical improvement without reducing dopamine transporter function. Here, we report our longitudinal findings in one PD patient, ie, decreases in striatal dopamine transpo...

It is unclear how subthalamic nucleus activity is modulated by the cerebral cortex. Here we investigate the effect of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the cortex on oscillatory subthalamic local field potential activity in the 8-35 Hz (alpha/beta) band, as exaggerated synchronization in this band is implicated in the pathophysiology of parkinsonism. We studied nine patients with Parki...

The morphology and connections of the accessory nucleus of Luys were examined in male Wistar strain rats using normal materials stained for Nissl or myelin sheath, and employing the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) method. This nucleus is situated ventrocaudally to the subthalamic nucleus and rostrally to the substantia nigra. The cells of the nucleus were stained more faintly than those of the sub...

Depleted of dopamine, the dynamics of the parkinsonian brain impact on both 'action' and 'resting' motor behaviour. Deep brain stimulation has become an established means of managing these symptoms, although its mechanisms of action remain unclear. Non-invasive characterizations of induced brain responses, and the effective connectivity underlying them, generally appeals to dynamic causal model...

Contraversive eye deviation (CED) is most often observed intraoperatively during subthalamic nucleus implantation for Parkinson's disease and considered to result from wrong electrode positioning. We report on a woman, bilaterally implanted in the subthalamic nucleus for severe Parkinson's disease disclosing long-lasting CED only when the stimulators were activated separately. Clinical examinat...

High-frequency deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus can be used to treat severe obsessive-compulsive disorders that are refractory to conventional treatments. The mechanisms of action of this approach possibly rely on the modulation of associative-limbic subcortical-cortical loops, but remain to be fully elucidated. Here in 12 patients, we report the effects of high-frequency stimu...