Department of Neurology, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Exp Neurol. 2012 Oct;237(2):435-43. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2012.07.002. Epub 2012 Jul 15.
Different tremor entities such as Essential Tremor (ET) or tremor in Parkinson's disease (PD) can be ameliorated by the implantation of electrodes in the ventral thalamus for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). The exact neural mechanisms underlying this treatment, as well as the specific pathophysiology of the tremor in both diseases to date remain elusive. Since tremor-related local field potentials (LFP) have been shown to cluster with a somatotopic representation in the subthalamic nucleus, we here investigated the neurophysiological correlates of tremor in the ventral thalamus in ET and PD using power and coherence analysis. Local field potentials (LFPs) at different recording depths and surface electromyographic signals (EMGs) from the extensor and flexor muscles of the contralateral forearm were recorded simultaneously in twelve ET and five PD patients. Data analysis revealed individual electrophysiological patterns of LFP-EMG coherence at single and double tremor frequency for each patient. Patterns observed varied in their spatial distribution within the Ventral lateral posterior nucleus of the thalamus (VLp), revealing a specific topography of 'tremor clusters' for PD and ET. The data strongly suggest that within VLp individual tremor-related electrophysiological signatures exist in ET and PD tremor.
不同的震颤实体，如特发性震颤（ET）或帕金森病（PD）震颤，可以通过在腹侧丘脑植入电极进行深部脑刺激（DBS）来缓解。这种治疗的确切神经机制，以及迄今为止这两种疾病震颤的特定病理生理学仍然难以捉摸。由于震颤相关的局部场电位（LFP）已被证明与丘脑底核的躯体代表簇聚，因此我们在这里使用功率和相干性分析研究了 ET 和 PD 中腹侧丘脑震颤的神经生理学相关性。在 12 名 ET 和 5 名 PD 患者中，同时记录了不同记录深度的局部场电位（LFPs）和对侧前臂伸肌和屈肌的表面肌电图信号（EMGs）。数据分析显示，每个患者在单个和双震颤频率下的 LFP-EMG 相干性具有个体的电生理模式。观察到的模式在丘脑腹外侧后核（VLp）内的空间分布不同，为 PD 和 ET 揭示了特定的“震颤簇”拓扑结构。这些数据强烈表明，在 ET 和 PD 震颤中，VLp 内存在个体震颤相关的电生理特征。
