Treating Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms Using Optogenic Deep Brain Stimulation in the Subthalamic Nucleus Adam Vanderlaan
Deep brain stimulation has been proven to be effective, however some of the mechanisms for its success are unclear. A patient who has experienced Parkinson’s symptoms for over 4 years may undergo this procedure which involves doctors using a thin wire to send electrical impulses into the brain. This stimulation alleviates Parkinson’s symptoms like muscle stiffness, slowness to movement, and muscle tremors. However, there are other symptoms associated with Parkinson’s that it does not treat and may even worsen issues involving memory and thinking (Michael J. Fox Foundation, 2020). DBS targets the subthalamic nucleus, a node that is critical to motor control from the basal ganglia. In animal models, inhibiting the function of the subthalamic nucleus using DBS has been demonstrated to be an effective method of treatment for Parkinson’s motor symptoms. It is similarly effective in humans but requires high frequency chronic stimulation from an implanted device (Benabid, 2003). The study by Yu et al. further investigated the mechanisms behind this form of treatment and concluded that a higher stimulation rate contributed to reduced abnormal oscillatory activity in the subthalamic nucleus, therefore treating Parkinson’s motor symptoms better than low frequency optogenic treatment. Their main findings stipulated that the kinetic properties of the opsins used are very important to the results of the optogenic deep brain stimulation treatment.
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