Emotional words evoke region- and valence-specific patterns of concurrent neuromodulator release in human thalamus and cortex

Words represent a uniquely human information channel-humans use words to express thoughts and feelings and to assign emotional valence to experience. Work from model organisms suggests that valence assignments are carried out in part by the neuromodulators dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. Here, we ask whether valence signaling by these neuromodulators extends to word semantics in humans by measuring sub-second neuromodulator dynamics in the thalamus (N = 13) and anterior cingulate cortex (N = 6) of individuals evaluating positive, negative, and neutrally valenced words. Our combined results suggest that valenced words modulate neuromodulator release in both the thalamus and cortex, but with region- and valence-specific response patterns, as well as hemispheric dependence for dopamine release in the anterior cingulate. Overall, these experiments provide evidence that neuromodulator-dependent valence signaling extends to word semantics in humans, but not in a simple one-valence-per-transmitter fashion.

Microstructural abnormalities of the dentato-rubro-thalamo-cortical tract in tremor dominant Parkinson's disease and essential tremor plus syndrome

PURPOSE

The dentato-rubro-thalamo-cortical tract (DRTC) is considered to play a crucial role across tremor disorders including tremor dominant Parkinson's disease (TDPD) and essential tremor plus (ETP). This study aims to comprehensively evaluate microstructural integrity of the DRTC using single-compartment, i.e., DTI, and multi-compartment, i.e., neurite orientation dispersion and distribution imaging (NODDI), and free water (FW) based analysis.

METHODS

DTI, NODDI and FW based metrics were estimated for 25 TDPD, 25 ETP (Essential tremor with rest tremor) and 22 healthy controls (HC). TBSS was carried out followed by voxelwise statistics on respective metric skeletons with TFCE correction and custom FA skeleton masks for left and right DRTC tracts. Masks generated from significant clusters, and whole tract masks were utilised in quantitative analysis. ROI based subject space analysis was also carried out for whole tract and TBSS cluster values. Quantitative analysis was carried out using MANCOVA with age and gender as covariates. Clinical features between TDPD and ETP were compared using t-test.

RESULTS

There was no difference in the Fahn-Tolosa-Marin tremor rating scale score. Compared to HC, TDPD showed lower neurite density index, higher axial diffusivity (AD), mean diffusivity (MD), FW corrected MD in the thalamo-cortical section of the left DRTC. No statistically significant differences were observed between ETP and HC or TDPD and ETP.

CONCLUSIONS

TDPD demonstrated asymmetric reduction in neurite density and increased MD, fwMD and AD in the thalamo-cortical section of DRTC. The absence of differences between ETP and TDPD may suggest the possibility of similarities in tremor pathogenesis.

Functional anatomy of the subthalamic nucleus and the pathophysiology of cardinal features of Parkinson's disease unraveled by focused ultrasound ablation

The subthalamic nucleus (STN) modulates basal ganglia output and plays a fundamental role in the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease (PD). Blockade/ablation of the STN improves motor signs in PD. We assessed the topography of focused ultrasound subthalamotomy (n = 39) by voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping to identify statistically validated brain voxels with the optimal effect against each cardinal feature and their respective cortical connectivity patterns by diffusion-weighted tractography. Bradykinesia and rigidity amelioration were associated with ablation of the rostral motor STN subregion connected to the supplementary motor and premotor cortices, whereas antitremor effect was explained by lesioning the posterolateral STN projection to the primary motor cortex. These findings were corroborated prospectively in another PD cohort (n = 12). This work concurs with recent deep brain stimulation findings that suggest different corticosubthalamic circuits underlying each PD cardinal feature. Our results provide sound evidence in humans of segregated anatomy of subthalamic-cortical connections and their distinct role in PD pathophysiology and normal motor control.

Exploring Analysis Approaches for Using the Dopamine Transporter Striatal Binding Ratio in Early- to Mid-Stage Parkinson's Disease Modification Trials

BACKGROUND

The dopamine transporter striatal binding ratio (DAT SBR) has been used as an outcome measure in Parkinson's disease (PD) trials of potential disease-modifying therapies; however, both patient characteristics and analysis approach potentially complicate its interpretation.

OBJECTIVE

The aim was to explore how well DAT SBR reflects PD motor severity across different striatal subregions and the relationship to disease duration, and side of onset.

METHODS

DAT SBR for the anterior and posterior putamen and caudate in both hemispheres was obtained using validated automated quantitative software on baseline scans of 132 patients recruited for the Exenatide PD2 and PD3 trials. Associations between mean and lateralized SBR subregions (posterior and anterior putamen and caudate) and summed and lateralized motor characteristics were explored using regression analysis. Analyses were repeated considering disease duration and limiting analysis to the less-affected hemisphere.

RESULTS

Lateralized bradykinesia was most consistently associated with the loss of DAT uptake in the contralateral anterior putamen. There was much higher variance in the posterior putamen, and in all regions in those with longer duration disease, although bradykinesia remained robustly associated with anterior putaminal DAT uptake even in longer-duration patients. Restricting analyses to the less-affected side did not usefully reduce the variance compared to the overall cohort.

CONCLUSION

These data suggest that DAT SBR could be a useful biomarker in disease-modifying trials, but a focus on anterior striatal subregions and incorporating disease duration into analyses may improve its utility.

A Model with Dopamine Depletion in Basal Ganglia and Cerebellum Predicts Changes in Thalamocortical Beta Oscillations

Parkinsonism is presented as a motor syndrome characterized by rigidity, tremors, and bradykinesia, with Parkinson's disease (PD) being the predominant cause. The discovery that those motor symptoms result from the death of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra led to focus most of parkinsonism research on the basal ganglia (BG). However, recent findings point to an active involvement of the cerebellum in this motor syndrome. Here, we have developed a multiscale computational model of the rodent brain's BG-cerebellar network. Simulations showed that a direct effect of dopamine depletion on the cerebellum must be taken into account to reproduce the alterations of neural activity in parkinsonism, particularly the increased beta oscillations widely reported in PD patients. Moreover, dopamine depletion indirectly impacted spike-time-dependent plasticity at the parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapses, degrading associative motor learning as observed in parkinsonism. Overall, these results suggest a relevant involvement of cerebellum in parkinsonism associative motor symptoms.

Comprehensive Analysis of Drug-Induced Parkinson-like Events

Specific drugs are well known to have the capacity to induce Parkinson-like symptoms. Parkinson-like events are side effects that may persist for an extended period even after drug administration is discontinued. Although these events can be triggered by various drugs, the mechanisms underlying their diverse symptoms remain largely unclear. To investigate this, we used the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Reporting Database, which is maintained by the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, to analyze the risk factors associated with Parkinson-like events along with the associated drug trends and characteristics. Our findings indicate that similar to Parkinson's disease, age-related differences affect the onset of these reported events, with older individuals being more susceptible. Hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis revealed that the mechanisms triggering these Parkinson-like events are consistent across reports, suggesting a common underlying cause. However, even with a consistent mechanism, the side effects can vary depending on the site of action. These insights underline the importance of the swift identification of the drugs suspected of causing these events and the implementation of measures to reduce their side effects.

Parkinsonian Tremor as Unstable Feedback in a Physiologically Consistent Control Framework

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by decreased dopamine in the basal ganglia that causes excessive tonic inhibition of the thalamus. This excessive inhibition seems to explain inhibitory motor symptoms in PD, but the source of tremor remains unclear. This paper investigates how neural inhibition may change the closed-loop characteristics of the human motor control system to determine how this established pathophysiology could produce tremor. The rate-coding model of neural signals suggests increased inhibition decreases signal amplitude, which could create a mismatch between the closed-loop dynamics and the internal models that overcome proprioceptive feedback delays. This paper aims to identify a candidate model structure with decreased-amplitude-induced tremor in PD that also agrees with previously recorded movements of healthy and cerebellar patients. The optimal feedback control theory of human motor control forms the basis of the model. Key additional elements include gating of undesired movements via the basal ganglia-thalamus-motor cortex circuit and the treatment of the efferent copy of the control input as a measurement in the state estimator. Simulations confirm the model's ability to capture tremor in PD and also demonstrate how disease progression could affect tremor and other motor symptoms, providing insight into the existence of tremor and non-tremor phenotypes. Altogether, the physiological underpinnings of the model structure and the agreement of model predictions with clinical observations provides support for the hypothesis that unstable feedback produces parkinsonian tremor. Consequently, these results also support the associated framework for the neuroanatomy of human motor control.

Unraveling sex differences in Parkinson's disease through explainable machine learning

Sex differences affect Parkinson's disease (PD) development and manifestation. Yet, current PD identification and treatments underuse these distinctions. Sex-focused PD literature often prioritizes prevalence rates over feature importance analysis. However, underlying aspects could make a feature significant for predicting PD, despite its score. Interactions between features require consideration, as do distinctions between scoring disparities and actual feature importance. For instance, a higher score in males for a certain feature doesn't necessarily mean it's less important for characterizing PD in females. This article proposes an explainable Machine Learning (ML) model to elucidate these underlying factors, emphasizing the importance of features. This insight could be critical for personalized medicine, suggesting the need to tailor data collection and analysis for males and females. The model identifies sex-specific differences in PD, aiding in predicting outcomes as "Healthy" or "Pathological". It adopts a system-level approach, integrating heterogeneous data - clinical, imaging, genetics, and demographics - to study new biomarkers for diagnosis. The explainable ML approach aids non-ML experts in understanding model decisions, fostering trust and facilitating interpretation of complex ML outcomes, thus enhancing usability and translational research. The ML model identifies muscle rigidity, autonomic and cognitive assessments, and family history as key contributors to PD diagnosis, with sex differences noted. The genetic variant SNCA-rs356181 may be more significant in characterizing PD in males. Interaction analysis reveals a greater occurrence of feature interplay among males compared to females. These disparities offer insights into PD pathophysiology and could guide the development of sex-specific diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

Differential patterns of functional connectivity in tremor dominant Parkinson's disease and essential tremor plus

Tremor dominant Parkinson's disease (TDPD) and essential tremor plus (ETP) syndrome are commonly encountered tremor dominant neurological disorders. Although the basal ganglia thalamocortical (BGTC) and cerebello thalamocortical (CTC) networks are implicated in tremorogenesis, the extent of functional connectivity alterations across disorders is uncertain. This study aims to evaluate functional connectivity of the BGTC and CTC in TDPD and ETP. Resting state functional MRI was acquired for 25 patients with TDPD, ETP and 22 healthy controls (HC). Following pre-processing and denoising, seed-to-voxel based connectivity was carried out at FDR < 0.05 using ROIs belonging to the BGTC and CTC. Fahn-Tolosa-Marin tremor rating scale (FTMRS) was correlated with the average connectivity values at FDR < 0.05. Compared to HC, TDPD showed decreased connectivity between cerebellum and pre, post central gyrus. While, ETP showed decreased connectivity between pallidum and occipital cortex, precuneus, cuneus compared to HC. In comparison to ETP, TDPD showed increased connectivity between precentral gyrus, pallidum, SNc with the default mode network (DMN), and decreased connectivity between cerebellum with superior, middle frontal gyrus was observed. Tremor severity positively correlated with connectivity between SNc and DMN in TDPD, and negatively correlated with pallidal connectivity in ETP. Pattern of BGTC, CTC involvement is differential i.e., higher connectivity of the BGTC nodes in TDPD, and higher connectivity of cerebellar nodes in ETP. The interesting observation of pallidal involvement in ETP suggests the role of BGTC in the pathogenesis of ETP, and indicated similarities in concepts of tremor genesis in TDPD and ETP.

RTMS of the Cerebellum Using an Accelerated Stimulation Protocol Improved Gait in Parkinson's Disease

BACKGROUND

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a nonpharmacological and noninvasive brain stimulation technique that has been proven to be effective in Parkinson's disease (PD). The combination of rTMS and treadmill training improved gait function in PD greater than treadmill training alone.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of our study was to evaluate the combination of a novel high-intensity, short intervention rTMS treatment and a multimodal treatment protocol including of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and language therapy, the so-called Parkinson's Disease Multimodal Complex Treatment (PD-MCT), to improve motor function.

METHODS

In this randomized double-blind sham-controlled trial rTMS with 48 Hz or sham was applied over the cerebellum 3 times a day for 5 consecutive days. Patients were assessed at baseline (V0), after 5 days of treatment (V1), and 4 weeks later (V2). The primary clinical outcome measure was the motor sum-score of the Unified PD Rating Scale (UPDRSIII), secondary clinical outcomes were quantitative motor tasks.

RESULTS

A total of 36 PD patients were randomly allocated either to rTMS (n = 20) or sham (n = 16), both combined with PD-MCT. rTMS improved the UDPRSIII score comparing baseline and V1 in the treatment group by -8.2 points (P = .004). The 8MW and dynamic posturography remained unchanged in both groups after intervention. Conclusion. Compressing weeks of canonical rTMS protocols into 5 days was effective and well tolerated. rTMS may serve as an add-on therapy for augmenting the multimodal complex treatment of motor symptoms, but seems to be ineffective to treat postural instability.

Re-emergent Tremor in Parkinson's Disease: Evidence of Pathologic β and Prokinetic γ Activity

BACKGROUND

Re-emergent tremor is characterized as a continuation of resting tremor and is often highly therapy refractory. This study examines variations in brain activity and oscillatory responses between resting and re-emergent tremors in Parkinson's disease.

METHODS

Forty patients with Parkinson's disease (25 males, mean age, 66.78 ± 5.03 years) and 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were included in the study. Electroencephalogram and electromyography signals were simultaneously recorded during resting and re-emergent tremors in levodopa on and off states for patients and mimicked by healthy controls. Brain activity was localized using the beamforming technique, and information flow between sources was estimated using effective connectivity. Cross-frequency coupling was used to assess neuronal oscillations between tremor frequency and canonical frequency oscillations.

RESULTS

During levodopa on, differences in brain activity were observed in the premotor cortex and cerebellum in both the patient and control groups. However, Parkinson's disease patients also exhibited additional activity in the primary sensorimotor cortex. On withdrawal of levodopa, different source patterns were observed in the supplementary motor area and basal ganglia area. Additionally, levodopa was found to suppress the strength of connectivity (P < 0.001) between the identified sources and influence the tremor frequency-related coupling, leading to a decrease in β (P < 0.001) and an increase in γ frequency coupling (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Distinct variations in cortical-subcortical brain activity are evident in tremor phenotypes. The primary sensorimotor cortex plays a crucial role in the generation of re-emergent tremor. Moreover, oscillatory neuronal responses in pathological β and prokinetic γ activity are specific to tremor phenotypes. © 2024 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Smaller Cerebellar Lobule VIIb is Associated with Tremor Severity in Parkinson's Disease

Alterations in the cerebellum's morphology in Parkinson's disease (PD) point to its pathophysiological involvement in this movement disorder. Such abnormalities have previously been attributed to different PD motor subtypes. The aim of the study was to relate volumes of specific cerebellar lobules to motor symptom severity, in particular tremor (TR), bradykinesia/rigidity (BR), and postural instability and gait disorders (PIGD) in PD. We performed a volumetric analysis based on T1-weighted MRI images of 55 participants with PD (22 females, median age 65 years, Hoehn and Yahr stage 2). Multiple regression models were fitted to investigate associations between volumes of cerebellar lobules with clinical symptom severity based on MDS-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) part III score and sub-scores for TR, BR, and PIGD; adjusted for age, sex, disease duration, and intercranial volume as cofactors. Smaller volume of lobule VIIb was associated with higher tremor severity (P = 0.004). No structure-function relationships were detected for other lobules or other motor symptoms. This distinct structural association denotes the involvement of the cerebellum in PD tremor. Characterizing morphological features of the cerebellum leads to a better understanding of its role in the spectrum of motor symptoms in PD and contributes further to identifying potential biological markers.

An OpenSim-Based Closed-Loop Biomechanical Wrist Model for Subject-Specific Pathological Tremor Simulation

OBJECTIVE

A pathological tremor (PT) is an involuntary rhythmic movement of varying frequency and amplitude that affects voluntary motion, thus compromising individuals' independence. A comprehensive model incorporating PT's physiological and biomechanical aspects can enhance our understanding of the disorder and provide valuable insights for therapeutic approaches. This study aims to build a biomechanical model of pathological tremors using OpenSim's realistic musculoskeletal representation of the human wrist with two degrees of freedom.

METHODS

We implemented a Matlab/OpenSim interface for a forward dynamics simulation, which allows for the modeling, simulation, and design of a physiological H∞ closed-loop control. This system replicates pathological tremors similar to those observed in patients when their arm is extended forward, the wrist is pronated, and the hand is subject to gravity forces. The model was individually tuned to five subjects (four Parkinson's disease patients and one diagnosed with essential tremor), each exhibiting distinct tremor characteristics measured by an inertial sensor and surface EMG electrodes. Simulation agreement with the experiments for EMGs, central frequency, joint angles, and angular velocities were evaluated by Jensen-Shannon divergence, histogram centroid error, and histogram intersection.

RESULTS

The model emulated individual tremor statistical characteristics, including muscle activations, frequency, variability, and wrist kinematics, with greater accuracy for the four Parkinson's patients than the essential tremor.

CONCLUSION

The proposed model replicated the main statistical features of subject-specific wrist tremor kinematics.

SIGNIFICANCE

Our methodology may facilitate the design of patient-specific rehabilitation devices for tremor suppression, such as neural prostheses and electromechanical orthoses.

[Tremor-dominant form of Parkinson's disease]

The article is of a review nature and is devoted to tremor, one of the maladaptive and difficult-to-treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). Along with the classic rest tremor, patients with PD may experience tremor of other modalities: postural tremor, kinetic tremor, which reflects a multimodal mechanism of tremor formation involving multiple neurotransmitter systems. The unpredictable response to therapeutic options, the ambiguous response to levodopa, also reflects the role of multiple underlying pathophysiological processes. Among the drug methods of tremor correction, preference is given to dopamine receptor agonists - due to the spectrum of their pharmaceutical action, high efficiency in relation to all leading motor and a number of non-motor manifestations. The evidence for advanced neurosurgical, non-invasive modalities is mixed, and there are insufficient comparative studies to assess their efficacy in patients with tremor-dominant forms of PD.

Parkinsonian rest tremor can be distinguished from voluntary hand movements based on subthalamic and cortical activity

OBJECTIVE

To distinguish Parkinsonian rest tremor and different voluntary hand movements by analyzing brain activity.

METHODS

We re-analyzed magnetoencephalography and local field potential recordings from the subthalamic nucleus of six patients with Parkinson's disease. Data were obtained after withdrawal from dopaminergic medication (Med Off) and after administration of levodopa (Med On). Using gradient-boosted tree learning, we classified epochs as tremor, fist-clenching, forearm extension or tremor-free rest.

RESULTS

Subthalamic activity alone was insufficient for distinguishing the four different motor states (balanced accuracy mean: 38%, std: 7%). The combination of cortical and subthalamic features, in contrast, allowed for a much more accurate classification (balanced accuracy mean: 75%, std: 17%). Adding a single cortical area improved balanced accuracy by 17% on average, as compared to classification based on subthalamic activity alone. In most patients, the most informative cortical areas were sensorimotor cortical regions. Decoding performance was similar in Med On and Med Off.

CONCLUSIONS

Electrophysiological recordings allow for distinguishing several motor states, provided that cortical signals are monitored in addition to subthalamic activity.

SIGNIFICANCE

By combining cortical recordings, subcortical recordings and machine learning, adaptive deep brain stimulation systems might be able to detect tremor specifically and to respond adequately to several motor states.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Nuclear Imaging of Parkinsonian Disorders: Where do we go from here?

Parkinsonian disorders are a heterogeneous group of incurable neurodegenerative diseases that significantly reduce quality of life and constitute a substantial economic burden. Nuclear imaging (NI) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have played and continue to play a key role in research aimed at understanding and monitoring these disorders. MRI is cheaper, more accessible, nonirradiating, and better at measuring biological structures and hemodynamics than NI. NI, on the other hand, can track molecular processes, which may be crucial for the development of efficient diseasemodifying therapies. Given the strengths and weaknesses of NI and MRI, how can they best be applied to Parkinsonism research going forward? This review aims to examine the effectiveness of NI and MRI in three areas of Parkinsonism research (differential diagnosis, prodromal disease identification, and disease monitoring) to highlight where they can be most impactful. Based on the available literature, MRI can assist with differential diagnosis, prodromal disease identification, and disease monitoring as well as NI. However, more work is needed, to confirm the value of MRI for monitoring prodromal disease and predicting phenoconversion. Although NI can complement or be a substitute for MRI in all the areas covered in this review, we believe that its most meaningful impact will emerge once reliable Parkinsonian proteinopathy tracers become available. Future work in tracer development and high-field imaging will continue to influence the landscape for NI and MRI.

Optimization of structural connectomes and scaled patterns of structural-functional decoupling in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is manifested with disrupted topology of the structural connection network (SCN) and the functional connection network (FCN). However, the SCN and its interactions with the FCN remain to be further investigated. This multimodality study attempted to precisely characterize the SCN using diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and further identify the neuropathological pattern of SCN-FCN decoupling, underscoring the neurodegeneration of PD. Diffusion-weighted imaging and resting-state functional imaging were available for network constructions among sixty-nine patients with PD and seventy demographically matched healthy control (HC) participants. The classification performance and topological prosperities of both the SCN and the FCN were analyzed, followed by quantification of the SCN-FCN couplings across scales. The SCN constructed by kurtosis metrics achieved optimal classification performance (area under the curve 0.89, accuracy 80.55 %, sensitivity 78.40 %, and specificity 80.65 %). Along with diverse alterations of structural and functional network topology, the PD group exhibited decoupling across scales including: reduced global coupling; increased nodal coupling within the sensorimotor network (SMN) and subcortical network (SN); higher intramodular coupling within the SMN and SN and lower intramodular coupling of the default mode network (DMN); decreased coupling between the modules of DMN-fronto-parietal network and DMN-visual network, but increased coupling between the SMN-SN module. Several associations between the coupling coefficient and topological properties of the SCN, as well as between network values and clinical scores, were observed. These findings validated the clinical implementation of DKI for structural network construction with better differentiation ability and characterized the SCN-FCN decoupling as supplementary insight into the pathological process underlying PD.

Tuned to Tremor: Increased Sensitivity of Cortico-Basal Ganglia Neurons to Tremor Frequency in the MPTP Nonhuman Primate Model of Parkinson's Disease

Rest tremor is one of the most prominent clinical features of Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we hypothesized that cortico-basal ganglia neurons tend to fire in a pattern that matches PD tremor frequency, suggesting a resonance phenomenon. We recorded spiking activity in the primary motor cortex (M1) and globus pallidus external segment of 2 female nonhuman primates, before and after parkinsonian state induction with 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine. The arm of nonhuman primates was passively rotated at seven different frequencies surrounding and overlapping PD tremor frequency. We found entrainment of the spiking activity to arm rotation and a significant sharpening of the tuning curves in the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine state, with a peak response at frequencies that matched the frequency of PD tremor. These results reveal increased sensitivity of the cortico-basal ganglia network to tremor frequency and could indicate that this network acts not only as a tremor switch but is involved in setting its frequency.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Tremor is a prominent clinical feature of Parkinson's disease; however, its underlying pathophysiology is still poorly understood. Using electrophysiological recordings of single cortico-basal ganglia neurons before and after the induction of a parkinsonian state, and in response to passive arm rotation, this study reports increased sensitivity to tremor frequency in Parkinson's disease. We found sharpening of the population tuning to the midrange of the tested frequencies (1-13.3 Hz) in the healthy state that further increased in the parkinsonian state. These results hint at the increased frequency-tuned sensitivity of cortico-basal ganglia neurons and suggest that they tend to resonate with the tremor.

Linking the cerebellum to Parkinson disease: an update

Parkinson disease (PD) is characterized by heterogeneous motor and non-motor symptoms, resulting from neurodegeneration involving various parts of the central nervous system. Although PD pathology predominantly involves the nigral-striatal system, growing evidence suggests that pathological changes extend beyond the basal ganglia into other parts of the brain, including the cerebellum. In addition to a primary involvement in motor control, the cerebellum is now known to also have an important role in cognitive, sleep and affective processes. Over the past decade, an accumulating body of research has provided clinical, pathological, neurophysiological, structural and functional neuroimaging findings that clearly establish a link between the cerebellum and PD. This Review presents an overview and update on the involvement of the cerebellum in the clinical features and pathogenesis of PD, which could provide a novel framework for a better understanding the heterogeneity of the disease.

Parkinson's Disease Tremor Differentially Responds to Levodopa and Subthalamic Stimulation

Background

Tremor in Parkinson's disease (PD) has an inconsistent response to levodopa and subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS).

Objectives

To identify predictive factors of PD tremor responsiveness to levodopa and STN-DBS.

Material and Methods

PD patients with upper limb tremor who underwent STN-DBS were included. The levodopa responsiveness of tremor (overall, postural, and rest sub-components), was assessed using the relevant Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale-III items performed during the preoperative assessment. Post-surgical outcomes were similarly assessed ON and OFF stimulation. A score for the rest/postural tremor ratio was used to determine the influence of rest and postural tremor severity on STN-DBS outcome. Factors predictive of tremor responsiveness were determined using multiple linear regression modeling. Volume of tissue activated measurement coupled to voxel-based analysis was performed to identify anatomical clusters associated with motor symptoms improvement.

Results

One hundred and sixty five patients were included in this study. Male gender was negatively correlated with tremor responsiveness to levodopa, whereas the ratio of rest/postural tremor was positively correlated with both levodopa responsiveness and STN-DBS tremor outcome. Clusters corresponding to improvement of tremor were in the subthalamic nucleus, the zona incerta and the thalamus, whereas clusters corresponding to improvement for akinesia and rigidity were located within the subthalamic nucleus.

Conclusion

More severe postural tremor and less severe rest tremor were associated with both poorer levodopa and STN-DBS response. The different locations of clusters associated with best correction of tremor and other parkinsonian features suggest that STN-DBS effect on PD symptoms is underpinned by the modulation of different networks.

Long-Term Follow-Up of Unilateral Deep Brain Stimulation Targeting the Caudal Zona Incerta in 13 Patients with Parkinsonian Tremor

INTRODUCTION

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD) and other movement disorders. The ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus is considered as the target of choice for tremor disorders, including tremor-dominant PD not suitable for DBS in the subthalamic nucleus (STN). In the last decade, several studies have shown promising results on tremor from DBS in the posterior subthalamic area (PSA), including the caudal zona incerta (cZi) located posteromedial to the STN. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term effect of unilateral cZi/PSA-DBS in patients with tremor-dominant PD.

METHODS

Thirteen patients with PD with medically refractory tremor were included. The patients were evaluated using the motor part of the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) off/on medication before surgery and off/on medication and stimulation 1-2 years (short-term) after surgery and at a minimum of 3 years after surgery (long-term).

RESULTS

At short-term follow-up, DBS improved contralateral tremor by 88% in the off-medication state. This improvement persisted after a mean of 62 months. Contralateral bradykinesia was improved by 40% at short-term and 20% at long-term follow-up, and the total UPDRS-III by 33% at short-term and by 22% at long-term follow-up with stimulation alone.

CONCLUSIONS

Unilateral cZi/PSA-DBS seems to remain an effective treatment for patients with severe Parkinsonian tremor several years after surgery. There was also a modest improvement on bradykinesia.

Multivariable closed-loop control of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease

Objective. Closed-loop deep brain stimulation (DBS) methods for Parkinson's disease (PD) to-date modulate either stimulation amplitude or frequency to control a single biomarker. While good performance has been demonstrated for symptoms that are correlated with the chosen biomarker, suboptimal regulation can occur for uncorrelated symptoms or when the relationship between biomarker and symptom varies. Control of stimulation-induced side-effects is typically not considered.Approach.A multivariable control architecture is presented to selectively target suppression of either tremor or subthalamic nucleus beta band oscillations. DBS pulse amplitude and duration are modulated to maintain amplitude below a threshold and avoid stimulation of distal large diameter axons associated with stimulation-induced side effects. A supervisor selects between a bank of controllers which modulate DBS pulse amplitude to control rest tremor or beta activity depending on the level of muscle electromyographic (EMG) activity detected. A secondary controller limits pulse amplitude and modulates pulse duration to target smaller diameter axons lying close to the electrode. The control architecture was investigated in a computational model of the PD motor network which simulated the cortico-basal ganglia network, motoneuron pool, EMG and muscle force signals.Main results.Good control of both rest tremor and beta activity was observed with reduced power delivered when compared with conventional open loop stimulation, The supervisor avoided over- or under-stimulation which occurred when using a single controller tuned to one biomarker. When DBS amplitude was constrained, the secondary controller maintained the efficacy of stimulation by increasing pulse duration to compensate for reduced amplitude. Dual parameter control delivered effective control of the target biomarkers, with additional savings in the power delivered.Significance.Non-linear multivariable control can enable targeted suppression of motor symptoms for PD patients. Moreover, dual parameter control facilitates automatic regulation of the stimulation therapeutic dosage to prevent overstimulation, whilst providing additional power savings.

A disynaptic basal ganglia connection to the inferior olive: potential for basal ganglia influence on cerebellar learning

Recent studies have shown that the cerebellum and the basal ganglia are interconnected at subcortical levels. However, a subcortical basal ganglia connection to the inferior olive (IO), being the source of the olivocerebellar climbing fiber system, is not known. We have used classical tracing with CTb, retrograde transneuronal infection with wildtype rabies virus, conditional tracing with genetically modified rabies virus, and examination of material made available by the Allen Brain Institute, to study potential basal ganglia connections to the inferior olive in rats and mice. We show in both species that parvalbumin-positive, and therefore GABAergic, neurons in the entopeduncular nucleus, representing the rodent equivalent of the internal part of the globus pallidus, innervate a group of cells that surrounds the fasciculus retroflexus and that are collectively known as the area parafascicularis prerubralis. As these neurons supply a direct excitatory input to large parts of the inferior olivary complex, we propose that the entopeduncular nucleus, as a main output station of the basal ganglia, provides an inhibitory influence on olivary excitability. As such, this connection may influence olivary involvement in cerebellar learning and/or could be involved in transmission of reward properties that have recently been established for olivocerebellar signaling.

Stepwise Dual-Target Magnetic Resonance-Guided Focused Ultrasound in Tremor-Dominant Parkinson Disease: A Feasibility Study

BACKGROUND

Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) has been applied successfully in treating refractory tremors in Parkinson disease (PD). It generates a precise thermal ablation in a specific nucleus or tract, such as ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) or pallidothalamic tract (PTT). Despite a single lesion improving parts of the PD symptoms, the feasibility and efficacy of a stepwise dual-lesion in VIM and PTT are yet to be explored.

METHODS

Three patients with tremor-dominant PD (aged 60.7 ± 6.0 years) received dual-target MRgFUS treatment with a series of primary and secondary outcome measures. The VIM and PTT were navigated based on individual magnetic resonance imaging planning of the brain. The primary outcome measures were the off-status Clinical Rating Scale for Tremor and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale part III (UPDRS-III). The secondary outcome measures included UPDRS I, II, IV, Hohen and Yahr score, Neuropsychiatry Inventory, Quality of life in PD Rating Scale, Non-Motor Symptoms Scale, and Clinical Global Impression. The baseline data were compared with those acquired 1 day and 1 month following the treatment.

RESULTS

The severity of tremor and motor deficits represented by Clinical Rating Scale for Tremor-part B and UPDRS III were significantly improved (P < 0.05 by nonparametric Mann-Whitney U tests) after dual-target ablations. The nonmotor symptoms investigated by UPDRS II and Non-Motor Symptoms Scale also showed significant improvement at the 1-day and 1-month follow-up. There was no adverse effect except temporary procedure-related headache and dizziness during the treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

Stepwise dual-lesion targeting VIM and PTT is a safe and effective MRgFUS therapeutic strategy for patients with PD.

Asymmetric adaptivity induces recurrent synchronization in complex networks

Rhythmic activities that alternate between coherent and incoherent phases are ubiquitous in chemical, ecological, climate, or neural systems. Despite their importance, general mechanisms for their emergence are little understood. In order to fill this gap, we present a framework for describing the emergence of recurrent synchronization in complex networks with adaptive interactions. This phenomenon is manifested at the macroscopic level by temporal episodes of coherent and incoherent dynamics that alternate recurrently. At the same time, the dynamics of the individual nodes do not change qualitatively. We identify asymmetric adaptation rules and temporal separation between the adaptation and the dynamics of individual nodes as key features for the emergence of recurrent synchronization. Our results suggest that asymmetric adaptation might be a fundamental ingredient for recurrent synchronization phenomena as seen in pattern generators, e.g., in neuronal systems.

GABA-A Alpha 2/3 but Not Alpha 1 Receptor Subunit Ligand Inhibits Harmaline and Pimozide-Induced Tremor in Rats

Treatment of tremors, such as in essential tremor (ET) and Parkinson's disease (PD) is mostly ineffective. Exact tremor pathomechanisms are unknown and relevant animal models are missing. GABA-A receptor is a target for tremorolytic medications, but current non-selective drugs produce side effects and have safety liabilities. The aim of this study was a search for GABA-A subunit-specific tremorolytics using different tremor-generating mechanisms. Two selective positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) were tested. Zolpidem, targeting GABA-A α1, was not effective in models of harmaline-induced ET, pimozide- or tetrabenazine-induced tremulous jaw movements (TJMs), while the novel GABA-A α2/3 selective MP-III-024 significantly reduced both the harmaline-induced ET tremor and pimozide-induced TJMs. While zolpidem decreased the locomotor activity of the rats, MP-III-024 produced small increases. These results provide important new clues into tremor suppression mechanisms initiated by the enhancement of GABA-driven inhibition in pathways controlled by α2/3 but not α1 containing GABA-A receptors. Tremor suppression by MP-III-024 provides a compelling reason to consider selective PAMs targeting α2/3-containing GABA-A receptors as novel therapeutic drug targets for ET and PD-associated tremor. The possibility of the improved tolerability and safety of this mechanism over non-selective GABA potentiation provides an additional rationale to further pursue the selective α2/3 hypothesis.

Pharmacological Treatment of Tremor in Parkinson's Disease Revisited

The pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) tremor remains incompletely understood and there is a lack of clinical trials specifically addressing its pharmacological treatment. Levodopa is the most efficacious drug for most patients and should be used as primary approach to control troublesome tremor. While the efficacy of oral dopamine agonists on PD tremor has been demonstrated in controlled trials, there is no evidence of greater antitremor efficacy compared to levodopa. The magnitude of the antitremor effect of anticholinergics is generally lower than that of levodopa. Due to their adverse effects, anticholinergics have a limited role in selected young and cognitively intact patients. Propranolol may improve resting and action tremor and may be considered as an adjunct in patients with insufficient tremor response to levodopa and this also applies to clozapine, despite its unfavorable adverse effect profile. Treating motor fluctuations with MAO-B and COMT inhibitors, dopamine agonists, amantadine, or on-demand treatments such as subcutaneous or sublingual apomorphine and inhaled levodopa as well as with continuous infusions of levodopa or apomorphine will improve off period tremor episodes. For patients with drug-refractory PD tremor despite levodopa optimization deep brain stimulation and focused ultrasound are first-line considerations. Surgery can also be highly effective for the treatment medication-refractory tremor in selected patients without motor fluctuations. The present review highlights the clinical essentials of parkinsonian tremor, critically examines available trial data on the effects of medication and surgical approaches and provides guidance for the choice of treatments to control PD tremor in clinical practice.

The Neurodegenerative Elderly Syndrome (NES) hypothesis: Alzheimer and Parkinson are two faces of the same disease

Increasing evidence suggests that Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) share monoamine and alpha-synuclein (αSyn) dysfunctions, often beginning years before clinical manifestations onset. The triggers for these impairments and the causes leading these early neurodegenerative processes to become AD or PD remain unclear. We address these issues by proposing a radically new perspective to frame AD and PD: they are different manifestations of one only disease we call "Neurodegenerative Elderly Syndrome (NES)". NES goes through three phases. The seeding stage, which starts years before clinical signs, and where the part of the brain-body affected by the initial αSyn and monoamine dysfunctions, influences the future possible progression of NES towards PD or AD. The compensatory stage, where the clinical symptoms are still silent thanks to compensatory mechanisms keeping monoamine concentrations homeostasis. The bifurcation stage, where NES becomes AD or PD. We present recent literature supporting NES and discuss how this hypothesis could radically change the comprehension of AD and PD comorbidities and the design of novel system-level diagnostic and therapeutic actions.

Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound for the treatment of tremor

INTRODUCTION

Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) is an emerging treatment for tremor and other movement disorders. An incisionless therapy, it is becoming increasingly common worldwide. However, given MRgFUS' relative novelty, there remain limited data on its benefits and adverse effects.

AREAS COVERED

We review the current state of evidence of MRgFUS for tremor, highlight its challenges, and discuss future perspectives.

EXPERT OPINION

Essential tremor (ET) has been the major indication for MRgFUS since a milestone randomized controlled trial (RCT) in 2016, with substantial evidence attesting to the efficacy and acceptable safety profile of this treatment. Patients with other tremor etiologies are also being treated with MRgFUS, with studies - including an RCT - suggesting parkinsonian tremor in particular responds well to this intervention. Additionally, targets other than the ventral intermediate nucleus, such as the subthalamic nucleus and internal segment of the globus pallidus, have been reported to improve parkinsonian symptoms beyond tremor, including rigidity and bradykinesia. Although MRgFUS is encumbered by certain unique technical challenges, it nevertheless offers significant advantages compared to alternative neurosurgical interventions for tremor. The fast-growing interest in this treatment modality will likely lead to further scientific and technological advancements that could optimize and expand its therapeutic potential.

Tremor in Parkinson's Disease: From Pathophysiology to Advanced Therapies

Background

Tremor is one of the most prevalent symptoms in Parkinson's Disease (PD). The progression and management of tremor in PD can be challenging, as response to dopaminergic agents might be relatively poor, particularly in patients with tremor-dominant PD compared to the akinetic/rigid subtype. In this review, we aim to highlight recent advances in the underlying pathogenesis and treatment modalities for tremor in PD.

Methods

A structured literature search through Embase was conducted using the terms "Parkinson's Disease" AND "tremor" OR "etiology" OR "management" OR "drug resistance" OR "therapy" OR "rehabilitation" OR "surgery." After initial screening, eligible articles were selected with a focus on published literature in the last 10 years.

Discussion

The underlying pathophysiology of tremor in PD remains complex and incompletely understood. Neurodegeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the retrorubral area, in addition to high-power neural oscillations in the cerebello-thalamo-cortical circuit and the basal ganglia, play a major role. Levodopa is the first-line therapeutic option for all motor symptoms, including tremor. The addition of dopamine agonists or anticholinergics can lead to further tremor reduction. Botulinum toxin injection is an effective alternative for patients with pharmacological-resistant tremor who are not seeking advanced therapies. Deep brain stimulation is the most well-established advanced therapy owing to its long-term efficacy, reversibility, and effectiveness in other motor symptoms and fluctuations. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound is a promising modality, which has the advantage of being incisionless. Cortical and peripheral electrical stimulation are non-invasive innovatory techniques that have demonstrated good efficacy in suppressing intractable tremor.

Clinical neurophysiology of Parkinson's disease and parkinsonism

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This review is part of the series on the clinical neurophysiology of movement disorders and focuses on Parkinson’s disease and parkinsonism.

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The pathophysiology of cardinal parkinsonian motor symptoms and myoclonus are reviewed.

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The recordings from microelectrode and deep brain stimulation electrodes are reported in detail.

This review is part of the series on the clinical neurophysiology of movement disorders. It focuses on Parkinson’s disease and parkinsonism. The topics covered include the pathophysiology of tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia, balance and gait disturbance and myoclonus in Parkinson’s disease. The use of electroencephalography, electromyography, long latency reflexes, cutaneous silent period, studies of cortical excitability with single and paired transcranial magnetic stimulation, studies of plasticity, intraoperative microelectrode recordings and recording of local field potentials from deep brain stimulation, and electrocorticography are also reviewed. In addition to advancing knowledge of pathophysiology, neurophysiological studies can be useful in refining the diagnosis, localization of surgical targets, and help to develop novel therapies for Parkinson’s disease.

Computational-Model-Based Biopharmaceutics for p53 Pathway Using Modern Control Techniques for Cancer Treatment

The p53 pathway has been the focus of many researchers in the last few decades owing to its pivotal role as a frontline cancer suppressant protein. It plays a vital role in maintaining cell cycle checkpoints and cell apoptosis in response to a broken DNA strand. This is why it is found in the mutated form in more than 50% of malignant tumors. To overcome this, various drugs have been proposed to revive the p53 pathway in cancer patients. Small-molecule-based drugs, such as Nutlin 3a, which are capable of performing this stimulation, are at the fore of advanced clinical trials. However, the calculation of their dosage is a challenge. In this work, a method to determine the dosage of Nutlin 3a is investigated. A control-systems-based model is developed to study the response of the wild-type p53 protein to this drug. The proposed strategy regulates the p53 protein along with negative and positive feedback loops mediated by the MDM2 and MDM2 mRNA, respectively, along with the reversible repression of MDM2 caused by Nutlin 3a. For a broader perspective, the reported PBK dynamics of Nutlin 3a are also incorporated. It has been reported that p53 responds to stresses in two ways in terms of concentration to this drug: either it is a sustained (constant) or an oscillatory response. The claimed dosage strategy turned out to be appropriate for sustained p53 response. However, for the induction of oscillations, inhibition of MDM2 is not enough; rather, anti-repression of the p53–MDM2 complex is also needed, which opens new horizons for a new drug design paradigm.

Utility of GPI+VIM dual-lead deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease patients with significant residual tremor on medication

OBJECTIVE

Randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that deep brain stimulation (DBS) of both the globus pallidus internus (GPI) and subthalamic nucleus (STN) for Parkinson's disease (PD) is superior to the best medical therapy. Tremor is particularly responsive to DBS, with reports of 70%-80% improvement. However, a small number of patients do not obtain the expected response with both STN and GPI targets. Indeed, the authors' patient population had a similar 81.2% tremor reduction with a 9.6% failure rate. In an analysis of these failures, they identified patients with preoperative on-medication tremor who subsequently received a GPI lead as a subpopulation at higher risk for inadequate tremor control. Thereafter, STN DBS was recommended for patients with on-medication tremor. However, for the patients with symptoms and comorbidities that favored GPI as the target, dual GPI and ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus (VIM) leads were proposed. This report details outcomes for those patients.

METHODS

This is a retrospective review of patients with PD who met the criteria for and underwent simultaneous GPI+VIM DBS surgery from 2015 to 2020 and had available follow-up data. The preoperative Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale scores were obtained with the study participants on and off their medication. Postoperatively, the GPI lead was kept on at baseline and scores were obtained with and without VIM stimulation.

RESULTS

Thirteen PD patients with significant residual preoperative tremor on medication underwent simultaneous GPI+VIM DBS surgery (11 unilateral, 2 bilateral). A mean 90.6% (SD 15.0%) reduction in tremor scores was achieved with dual GPI+VIM stimulation compared to a 21.8% (SD 71.9%) reduction with GPI stimulation alone and a 30.9% (SD 37.8%) reduction with medication. Although rigidity and bradykinesia reductions were accomplished with just GPI stimulation, 13 of the 15 hemispheres required VIM stimulation to achieve excellent tremor control.

CONCLUSIONS

GPI+VIM stimulation was required to adequately control tremor in all but 2 patients in this series, substantiating the authors' hypothesis that, in their population, medication-resistant tremor does not completely respond to GPI stimulation. Dual stimulation of the GPI and VIM proved to be an effective option for the patients who had symptoms and comorbidities that favored GPI as a target and had medication-resistant tremor.

Altered Intra- and Inter-Network Connectivity in Drug-Naïve Patients With Early Parkinson’s Disease

The aim of our study was to investigate differences in whole brain connectivity at different levels between drug-naïve individuals with early Parkinson’s disease (PD) and healthy controls (HCs). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected from 47 patients with early-stage, drug-naïve PD and 50 HCs. Functional brain connectivity was analyzed at the integrity, network, and edge levels; UPDRS-III, MMSE, MOCA, HAMA, and HAMD scores, reflecting the symptoms of PD, were collected for further regression analysis. Compared with age-matched HCs, reduced functional connectivity were mainly observed in the visual (VSN), somatomotor (SMN), limbic (LBN), and deep gray matter networks (DGN) at integrity level [p < 0.05, false discovery rate (FDR) corrected]. Intra-network analysis indicated decreased functional connectivity in DGN, SMN, LBN, and ventral attention networks (VAN). Inter-network analysis indicated reduced functional connectivity in nine pairs of resting-state networks. At the edge level, the LBN was the center of abnormal functional connectivity (p < 0.05, FDR corrected). MOCA score was associated with the intra-network functional connectivity strength (FC) of the DGN, and inter-network FC of the DGN-VAN. HAMA and HAMD scores were associated with the FC of the SMN and DGN, and either the LBN or VAN, respectively. We demonstrated variations in whole brain connections of drug-naïve patients with early PD. Major changes involved the SMN, DGN, LBN, and VSN, which may be relevant to symptoms of early PD. Additionally, our results support PD as a disconnection syndrome.

Resting State Functional Connectivity Signatures of MRgFUS Vim Thalamotomy in Parkinson's Disease: A Preliminary Study

Magnetic Resonance-guided high-intensity Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) of the thalamic ventral intermediate nucleus (Vim) for tremor has increasingly gained interest as a new non-invasive alternative to standard neurosurgery. Resting state functional connectivity (rs-FC) correlates of MRgFUS have not been extensively investigated yet. A region of interest (ROI)-to-ROI rs-FC MRI “connectomic” analysis focusing on brain regions relevant for tremor was conducted on 15 tremor-dominant patients with Parkinson's disease who underwent MRgFUS. We tested whether rs-FC between tremor-related areas was modulated by MRgFUS at 1 and 3 months post-operatively, and whether such changes correlated with individual clinical outcomes assessed by the MDS-UPDRS-III sub items for tremor. Significant increase in FC was detected within bilateral primary motor (M1) cortices, as well as between bilateral M1 and crossed primary somatosensory cortices, and also between pallidum and the dentate nucleus of the untreated hemisphere. Correlation between disease duration and FC increase at 3 months was found between the putamen of both cerebral hemispheres and the Lobe VI of both cerebellar hemispheres, as well as between the Lobe VI of untreated cerebellar hemisphere with bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA). Drop-points value of MDS-UPDRS at 3 months correlated with post-treatment decrease in FC, between the anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral SMA, as well as between the Lobe VI of treated cerebellar hemisphere and the interpositus nucleus of untreated cerebellum. Tremor improvement at 3 months, expressed as percentage of intra-subject MDS-UPDRS changes, correlated with FC decrease between bilateral occipital fusiform gyrus and crossed Lobe VI and Vermis VI. Good responders (≥50% of baseline tremor improvement) showed reduced FC between bilateral SMA, between the interpositus nucleus of untreated cerebellum and the Lobe VI of treated cerebellum, as well as between the untreated SMA and the contralateral putamen. Good responders were characterized at baseline by crossed hypoconnectivity between bilateral putamen and M1, as well as between the putamen of the treated hemisphere and the contralateral SMA. We conclude that MRgFUS can effectively modulate brain FC within the tremor network. Such changes are associated with clinical outcome. The shifting mode of integration among the constituents of this network is, therefore, susceptible to external redirection despite the chronic nature of PD.

Blockade of adenosine A2A receptors inhibits Tremulous Jaw Movements as well as expression of zif-268 and GAD65 mRNAs in brain motor structures

Tremor is one of the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD), present also in neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism. Tremulous Jaw Movements (TJMs) are suggested to be a well-validated rodent model of PD resting tremor. TJMs can be induced by typical antipsychotics and are known to be reduced by different drugs, including adenosine A_2A receptor antagonists. The aim of the present study was to search for brain structures involved in the tremorolytic action of SCH58261, a selective A_2A receptor antagonist, in TJMs induced by subchronic pimozide. Besides TJMs, we evaluated in the same animals the expression of zif-268 mRNA (neuronal responsiveness marker), and mRNA levels for glutamic acid decarboxylase 65-kDa isoform (GAD65) and vesicular glutamate transporters 1 and 2 (vGluT1/2) in selected brain structures, as markers of GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons, respectively. We found that SCH58261 reduced the pimozide-induced TJMs. Pimozide increased the zif-268 mRNA level in the striatum, nucleus accumbens (NAc) core, and substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr). Additionally, it increased GAD65 mRNA in the striatum and SNr, and vGluT2 mRNA levels in the subthalamic nucleus (STN). A positive correlation between zif-268, GAD65 and vGluT2 mRNAs and TJMs was found. SCH58261 reversed the pimozide-increased zif-268 mRNA in the striatum and NAc core and GAD65 mRNA in the striatum and SNr. In contrast, SCH58261 did not influence vGluT2 mRNA in STN. The present study suggests an importance of the striato-subthalamo-nigro-thalamic circuit in neuroleptic-induced TJMs. The tremorolytic effect of A_2A receptor blockade seems to involve this circuit bypassing, however, STN.

Characterization and localization of upper and lower extremity motor improvements in STN DBS for Parkinson's disease

INTRODUCTION

Subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN DBS) may have differential effects on cardinal motor signs of Parkinson's disease (PD) in the upper and lower extremities. In addition, sites of maximally effective DBS for each sign and extremity may be distinct. Our study seeks to elucidate these structure-function relationships.

METHODS

We applied an ordinary least squares linear regression model to measure motor effects of STN DBS on upper (UE) and lower (LE) extremity tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia. We then applied an atlas-independent electrical-field model to identify sites of maximally effective stimulation for each sign and each extremity. Distances between sites and statistical power to resolve differences were calculated.

RESULTS

In our study population (n = 78 patients), STN DBS improved all cardinal motor signs (β = 0.64, p < .05). Improvement magnitudes were tremor > rigidity > bradykinesia. Effects of STN DBS on UE versus LE signs were statistically equal for tremor and bradykinesia, but greater for UE rigidity than LE rigidity (β = 0.19, p < .05). UE maximal-effect loci were lateral, anterior, and dorsal to LE loci, but were not statistically resolved, despite sufficient statistical power to resolve differences of ≤0.48 mm (p < .05) between maximally effective loci of stimulation.

CONCLUSION

STN DBS produces differential effects on UE and LE rigidity, but not for tremor or bradykinesia. This finding is not explained by distinct UE and LE loci of maximally effective stimulation. Instead, we hypothesize that downstream effects of STN DBS on motor networks and limb biomechanics are responsible for observed differences in UE and LE responses.

Symptom-specific differential motor network modulation by deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease

OBJECTIVE

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is an established neurosurgical treatment for the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). While often highly effective, DBS does not always yield optimal therapeutic outcomes, and stimulation-induced adverse effects, including paresthesia, muscle contractions, and nausea/lightheadedness, commonly occur and can limit the efficacy of stimulation. Currently, objective metrics do not exist for monitoring neural changes associated with stimulation-induced therapeutic and adverse effects.

METHODS

In the present study, the authors combined intraoperative functional MRI (fMRI) with STN DBS in 20 patients with PD to test the hypothesis that stimulation-induced blood oxygen level-dependent signals contained predictive information concerning the therapeutic and adverse effects of stimulation.

RESULTS

As expected, DBS resulted in blood oxygen level-dependent activation in myriad motor regions, including the primary motor cortex, caudate, putamen, thalamus, midbrain, and cerebellum. Across the patients, DBS-induced improvements in contralateral Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale tremor subscores correlated with activation of thalamic, brainstem, and cerebellar regions. In addition, improvements in rigidity and bradykinesia subscores correlated with activation of the primary motor cortex. Finally, activation of specific sensorimotor-related subregions correlated with the presence of DBS-induced adverse effects, including paresthesia and nausea (cerebellar cortex, sensorimotor cortex) and unwanted muscle contractions (caudate and putamen).

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that DBS-induced activation patterns revealed by fMRI contain predictive information with respect to the therapeutic and adverse effects of DBS. The use of fMRI in combination with DBS therefore may hold translational potential to guide and improve clinical stimulator optimization in patients.

Subthalamic-Cortical Network Reorganization during Parkinson's Tremor

Tremor, a common and often primary symptom of Parkinson's disease, has been modeled with distinct onset and maintenance dynamics. To identify the neurophysiologic correlates of each state, we acquired intraoperative cortical and subthalamic nucleus recordings from 10 patients (9 male, 1 female) performing a naturalistic visual-motor task. From this task, we isolated short epochs of tremor onset and sustained tremor. Comparing these epochs, we found that the subthalamic nucleus was central to tremor onset, as it drove both motor cortical activity and tremor output. Once tremor became sustained, control of tremor shifted to cortex. At the same time, changes in directed functional connectivity across sensorimotor cortex further distinguished the sustained tremor state.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Tremor is a common symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD). While tremor pathophysiology is thought to involve both basal ganglia and cerebello-thalamic-cortical circuits, it is unknown how these structures functionally interact to produce tremor. In this article, we analyzed intracranial recordings from the subthalamic nucleus and sensorimotor cortex in patients with PD undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery. Using an intraoperative task, we examined tremor in two separate dynamic contexts: when tremor first emerged, and when tremor was sustained. We believe that these findings reconcile several models of Parkinson's tremor, while describing the short-timescale dynamics of subcortical-cortical interactions during tremor for the first time. These findings may describe a framework for developing proactive and responsive neurostimulation models for specifically treating tremor.

Abnormal Functional Brain Network in Parkinson's Disease and the Effect of Acute Deep Brain Stimulation

Objective: The objective of this study was to use functional connectivity and graphic indicators to investigate the abnormal brain network topological characteristics caused by Parkinson's disease (PD) and the effect of acute deep brain stimulation (DBS) on those characteristics in patients with PD. Methods: We recorded high-density EEG (256 channels) data from 21 healthy controls (HC) and 20 patients with PD who were in the DBS-OFF state and DBS-ON state during the resting state with eyes closed. A high-density EEG source connectivity method was used to identify functional brain networks. Power spectral density (PSD) analysis was compared between the groups. Functional connectivity was calculated for 68 brain regions in the theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-13 Hz), beta1 (13-20 Hz), and beta2 (20-30 Hz) frequency bands. Network estimates were measured at both the global (network topology) and local (inter-regional connection) levels. Results: Compared with HC, PSD was significantly increased in the theta (p = 0.003) frequency band and was decreased in the beta1 (p = 0.009) and beta2 (p = 0.04) frequency bands in patients with PD. However, there were no differences in any frequency bands between patients with PD with DBS-OFF and DBS-ON. The clustering coefficient and local efficiency of patients with PD showed a significant decrease in the alpha, beta1, and beta2 frequency bands (p < 0.001). In addition, edgewise statistics showed a significant difference between the HC and patients with PD in all analyzed frequency bands (p < 0.005). However, there were no significant differences between the DBS-OFF state and DBS-ON state in the brain network, except for the functional connectivity in the beta2 frequency band (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Compared with HC, patients with PD showed the following characteristics: slowed EEG background activity, decreased clustering coefficient and local efficiency of the brain network, as well as both increased and decreased functional connectivity between different brain areas. Acute DBS induces a local response of the brain network in patients with PD, mainly showing decreased functional connectivity in a few brain regions in the beta2 frequency band.

Dopamine Transporter Imaging, Current Status of a Potential Biomarker: A Comprehensive Review

A major goal of current clinical research in Parkinson's disease (PD) is the validation and standardization of biomarkers enabling early diagnosis, predicting outcomes, understanding PD pathophysiology, and demonstrating target engagement in clinical trials. Molecular imaging with specific dopamine-related tracers offers a practical indirect imaging biomarker of PD, serving as a powerful tool to assess the status of presynaptic nigrostriatal terminals. In this review we provide an update on the dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging in PD and translate recent findings to potentially valuable clinical practice applications. The role of DAT imaging as diagnostic, preclinical and predictive biomarker is discussed, especially in view of recent evidence questioning the incontrovertible correlation between striatal DAT binding and nigral cell or axon counts.

Altered Brain Functional Network in Subtypes of Parkinson's Disease: A Dynamic Perspective

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a highly heterogeneous disease, especially in the clinical characteristics and prognosis. The PD is divided into two subgroups: tremor-dominant phenotype and non-tremor-dominant phenotype. Previous studies reported abnormal changes between the two PD phenotypes by using the static functional connectivity analysis. However, the dynamic properties of brain networks between the two PD phenotypes are not yet clear. Therefore, we aimed to uncover the dynamic functional network connectivity (dFNC) between the two PD phenotypes at the subnetwork level, focusing on the temporal properties of dFNC and the variability of network efficiency.

Methods: We investigated the resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) data from 29 tremor-dominant PD patients (PDTD), 25 non-tremor-dominant PD patients (PDNTD), and 20 healthy controls (HCs). Sliding window approach, k-means clustering, independent component analysis (ICA), and graph theory analysis were applied to analyze the dFNC. Furthermore, the relationship between alterations in the dynamic properties and clinical features was assessed.

Results: The dFNC analyses identified four reoccurring states, one of them showing sparse connections (state I). PDTD patients stayed longer time in state I and showed increased FNC between BG and vSMN in state IV. Both PD phenotypes exhibited higher FNC between dSMN and FPN in state II and state III compared with the controls. PDNTD patients showed decreased FNC between BG and FPN but increased FNC in the bilateral FPN compared with both PDTD patients and controls. In addition, PDNTD patients exhibited greater variability in global network efficiency. Tremor scores were positively correlated with dwell time in state I along with increased FNC between BG and vSMN in state IV.

Conclusions: This study explores the dFNC between the PDTD and PDNTD patients, which offers new evidence on the abnormal time-varying brain functional connectivity and their network destruction of the two PD phenotypes, and may help better understand the neural substrates underlying different types of PD.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Tremor Syndromes: Pathophysiologic Insights and Therapeutic Role

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a painless, non-invasive, and established brain stimulation technique to investigate human brain function. Over the last three decades, TMS has shed insight into the pathophysiology of many neurological disorders. Tremor is an involuntary, rhythmic oscillatory movement disorder commonly related to pathological oscillations propagated via the cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathway. Although tremor is the most common movement disorder and recent imaging studies have enhanced our understanding of the critical pathogenic networks, the underlying pathophysiology of different tremor syndromes is complex and still not fully understood. TMS has been used as a tool to further our understanding of tremor pathophysiology. In addition, repetitive TMS (rTMS) that can modulate brain functions through plasticity effects has been targeted to the tremor network to gain potential therapeutic benefits. However, evidence is available for only a few studies that included small patient samples with limited clinical follow-up. This review aims to discuss the role of TMS in advancing the pathophysiological understanding as well as emerging applications of rTMS for treating individual tremor syndromes. The review will focus on essential tremor, Parkinson's disease tremor, dystonic tremor syndrome, orthostatic tremor, and functional tremor.

Global efficiency of the motor network is decreased in Parkinson's disease in comparison with essential tremor and healthy controls

BACKGROUND

Graph theory (GT) is a mathematical field that analyses complex networks that can be applied to neuroimaging to quantify brain's functional systems in Parkinson's disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET).

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the functional connectivity (FC) measured by the global efficiency (GE) of the motor network in PD and compare it to ET and healthy controls (HC), and correlate it to clinical parameters.

METHODS

103 subjects (54PD, 18ET, 31HC) were submitted to structural and functional MRI. A network was designed with regions of interest (ROIs) involved in motor function, and GT was applied to determine its GE. Clinical parameters were analyzed as covariates to estimate the impact of disease severity and medication on GE.

RESULTS

GE of the motor circuit was reduced in PD in comparison with HC (p .042). Areas that most contributed to it were left supplementary motor area (SMA) and bilateral postcentral gyrus. Tremor scores correlated positively with GE of the motor network in PD subgroups. For ET, there was an increase in the connectivity of the anterior cerebellar network to the other ROIs of the motor circuit in comparison with PD.

CONCLUSIONS

FC measured by the GE of the motor network is diminished in PD in comparison with HC, especially due to decreased connectivity of left SMA and bilateral postcentral gyrus. This finding supports the theory that there is a global impairment of the motor network in PD, and it does not affect just the basal ganglia, but also areas associated with movement modulation. The ET group presented an increased connectivity of the anterior cerebellar network to the other ROIs of the motor circuit when compared to PD, which reinforces what it is known about its role in this pathology.

Increasing Serotonin to Reduce Parkinsonian Tremor

While current dopamine-based drugs seem to be effective for most Parkinson's disease (PD) motor dysfunctions, they produce variable responsiveness for resting tremor. This lack of consistency could be explained by considering recent evidence suggesting that PD resting tremor can be divided into different partially overlapping phenotypes based on the dopamine response. These phenotypes may be associated with different pathophysiological mechanisms produced by a cortical-subcortical network involving even non-dopaminergic areas traditionally not directly related to PD. In this study, we propose a bio-constrained computational model to study the neural mechanisms underlying a possible type of PD tremor: the one mainly involving the serotoninergic system. The simulations run with the model demonstrate that a physiological serotonin increase can partially recover dopamine levels at the early stages of the disease before the manifestation of overt tremor. This result suggests that monitoring serotonin concentration changes could be critical for early diagnosis. The simulations also show the effectiveness of a new pharmacological treatment for tremor that acts on serotonin to recover dopamine levels. This latter result has been validated by reproducing existing data collected with human patients.