Center for Brain and Cognition, Computational Neuroscience Group, Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, 08018, Spain.
Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience & Movement Disorders, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom.
Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 29;7(1):9882. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-10003-y.
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease is a highly effective treatment in controlling otherwise debilitating symptoms. Yet the underlying brain mechanisms are currently not well understood. Whole-brain computational modeling was used to disclose the effects of DBS during resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in ten patients with Parkinson's disease. Specifically, we explored the local and global impact that DBS has in creating asynchronous, stable or critical oscillatory conditions using a supercritical bifurcation model. We found that DBS shifts global brain dynamics of patients towards a Healthy regime. This effect was more pronounced in very specific brain areas such as the thalamus, globus pallidus and orbitofrontal regions of the right hemisphere (with the left hemisphere not analyzed given artifacts arising from the electrode lead). Global aspects of integration and synchronization were also rebalanced. Empirically, we found higher communicability and coherence brain measures during DBS-ON compared to DBS-OFF. Finally, using our model as a framework, artificial in silico DBS was applied to find potential alternative target areas for stimulation and whole-brain rebalancing. These results offer important insights into the underlying large-scale effects of DBS as well as in finding novel stimulation targets, which may offer a route to more efficacious treatments.
深部脑刺激（DBS）治疗帕金森病是一种控制致残性症状的有效方法。然而，其潜在的大脑机制目前还不清楚。本研究采用全脑计算模型，在 10 名帕金森病患者的静息态功能磁共振成像中揭示 DBS 的作用。具体来说，我们使用超临界分岔模型探索了 DBS 在产生异步、稳定或临界振荡条件方面的局部和全局影响。我们发现 DBS 使患者的大脑全局动力学向健康状态转变。这种影响在丘脑、苍白球和右侧额眶区域等特定区域更为明显（由于电极导联产生的伪影，未对左侧半球进行分析）。整合和同步的全局方面也得到了重新平衡。从经验上看，我们发现 DBS-ON 期间大脑的可传播性和相干性更高。最后，我们使用模型作为框架，对人工的、虚拟的 DBS 进行了应用，以寻找潜在的替代刺激靶点和全脑平衡的目标区域。这些结果为 DBS 的潜在大规模影响以及寻找新的刺激靶点提供了重要的见解，这可能为更有效的治疗方法提供了途径。
