Subthalamic nucleus neuronal firing rate increases with Parkinson's disease progression

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive loss of dopaminergic cells in the central nervous system, in particular the substantia nigra, resulting in an unrelenting loss of motor and nonmotor function. Animal models of Parkinson's disease reveal hypera...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Movement disorders 2011-08, Vol.26 (9), p.1657-1662
Main Authors: Remple, Michael S., Bradenham, Courtney H., Kao, C. Chris, Charles, P. David, Neimat, Joseph S., Konrad, Peter E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action Potentials - physiology
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
Deep Brain Stimulation - methods
Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases
Disease Progression
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Microelectrodes
Middle Aged
neurodegeneration
Neurology
Neurons - physiology
neurophysiology
Parkinson Disease - pathology
Parkinson Disease - therapy
Parkinson's disease
pathophysiology
rate model
subthalamic nucleus
Subthalamic Nucleus - pathology
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Summary:Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive loss of dopaminergic cells in the central nervous system, in particular the substantia nigra, resulting in an unrelenting loss of motor and nonmotor function. Animal models of Parkinson's disease reveal hyperactive neurons in the subthalamic nucleus that have increased firing rates and bursting activity compared with controls. Although subthalamic nucleus activity has been characterized in patients with advanced‐stage Parkinson's disease, it has not been described in patients with early‐stage Parkinson's disease. Here we present the results of subthalamic nucleus neuronal recordings from patients with early‐stage Parkinson's disease (Hoehn and Yahr stage II) enrolled in an ongoing clinical trial compared with recordings from age‐ and sex‐matched patients with advanced Parkinson's disease. Subthalamic nucleus neurons had a significantly lower firing rate in early versus advanced Parkinson's disease (28.7 vs 36.3 Hz; P < .01). The overall activity of the subthalamic nucleus was also significantly lower in early versus late Parkinson's disease, as measured by background neuronal noise (12.4 vs 14.0 mV; P < .05). No significant difference was identified between groups in the bursting or variability of neuronal firing in the subthalamic nucleus, as measured by a burst index or the interspike interval coefficient of variability. The results suggest that neuronal firing in the subthalamic nucleus increases with Parkinson's disease progression. © 2011 Movement Disorder Society
ISSN:0885-3185
1531-8257
DOI:10.1002/mds.23708