Objective: Determine whether ipsilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) stimulation affects local field potential (LFP) power in the contralateral STN to inform clinical decision making.

Background: A number of factors may affect deep-brain-stimulation (DBS) therapy outcomes in Parkinson’s disease (PD), e.g., stimulation parameters, disease duration and genetic status. Suppression of STN beta-oscillatory activity is known to improve motor symptoms.  A sensing-enabled implantable pulse generator (IPG) allows detection and longitudinal monitoring of STN beta-oscillatory activity in the STN bilaterally and can assist in optimizing stimulation.

Method: Retrospective analysis of LFP power during streaming from 26 PD cases from two different centers who had undergone bilateral STN DBS, including four GBA1 mutation carriers, were analyzed using the Brain Recording Analysis and Visualization Online (BRAVO) platform developed at the University of Florida (UFL). Stimulation was performed bilaterally in the monopolar configuration. The frequency of interest (FOI) ranged from 10.74 to 25.39 Hz, with the adjustment dependent on clinical response to stimulation parameters and dopaminergic medication. Genetic status was obtained as part of both the ROPAD study (NCT03866603) and the Italian PARKNET study.

Results: As expected, LFP power in the beta range decreased in response to current increase in the stimulated STN. In 18 patients, LFP power appeared to vary concurrently in the non-stimulated STN, sometimes showing a similar, albeit weaker decrease. Quantitation of the effect and a comparison of GBA1+ and GBA1– cases is ongoing.

Conclusion: This retrospective pilot study suggests that the therapeutic effect of STN stimulation may be mediated on the stimulated but also on the non-stimulated STN.  Therefore, bilateral suppression of LFP power may need to be taken into account during programming and could inform choice of stimulation patterns in both the continuous (cDBS) and adaptive (aDBS) platforms.

« Back to 2025 International Congress

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/subthalamic-nucleus-stimulation-may-suppress-both-ipsilateral-and-contralateral-local-field-potential-magnitude/