Objective: To elucidate the electrophysiological correlates of the reward and loss processing during incentive anticipation and feedback in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Background: Previous studies have indicated PD patients display abnormal reward processing and impulsive control problems. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) at the STN, a nucleus with motor, associative and limbic subdivisions, has been found closely associated with the improvement of reward processing and motivated behavior in PD patients. However, the studies examining STN neural activity associated with reward/loss processing in PD patients are limited.
Method: We examined the local field potential (LFP) of the STN in 17 PD patients (11 males and 6 females, mean age of 62±9 years) during a monetary incentive delay task, which is a classical measure for neural activity of incentive receipt anticipation and outcome processing. The STN-LFP and the frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) were recorded while the patients performing the task, and the oscillatory activities locked to anticipation and feedback cues were analyzed.
Results: During the cue-induced anticipation phase, increased STN delta-band oscillations selectively appeared in the trials with potential loss but not in the potentially rewarding trials (p<0.05). Furthermore, STN gamma-band oscillatory activities increased in reward anticipation but decreased in loss anticipation (p<0.05). During the outcome phase, STN delta/theta-band oscillations, STN delta-beta phase-amplitude coupling, and STN-LFP coherence with frontal scalp EEG at low-frequency bands increased in response to the reward feedback after timely and correct action (ps<0.05), but not to the loss feedback following an incorrect response.
Conclusion: These findings profile the electrophysiological activities in STN for reward/loss processing, and highlight the differential responsiveness of STN for the reward- and loss- anticipatory and feedback stimuli. The identified local field potentials might be utilized to guide the neuromodulation on incentive behavior in PD patients in future studies.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
CC. Zhang, J. Li, L. Manssuer, Q. Ding, L.B Wang, B.M Sun, D.Y Li, V. Voon. Neural activity in the subthalamic nucleus in association with reward/loss processing in patients with Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2020; 35 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/neural-activity-in-the-subthalamic-nucleus-in-association-with-reward-loss-processing-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2020
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/neural-activity-in-the-subthalamic-nucleus-in-association-with-reward-loss-processing-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/