Binns Thomas S, Köhler Richard M, Vanhoecke Jojo, Chikermane Meera, Gerster Moritz, Merk Timon, Pellegrini Franziska, Busch Johannes L, Habets Jeroen G V, Cavallo Alessia, Beyer Jean-Christin, Al-Fatly Bassam, Li Ningfei, Horn Andreas, Krause Patricia, Faust Katharina, Schneider Gerd-Helge, Haufe Stefan, Kühn Andrea A, Neumann Wolf-Julian
Movement Disorder and Neuromodulation Unit, Department of Neurology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Einstein Center for Neurosciences Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2025 Apr 15;16(1):3587. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-58825-z.
Deep brain stimulation is a brain circuit intervention that can modulate distinct neural pathways for the alleviation of neurological symptoms in patients with brain disorders. In Parkinson's disease, subthalamic deep brain stimulation clinically mimics the effect of dopaminergic drug treatment, but the shared pathway mechanisms on cortex - basal ganglia networks are unknown. To address this critical knowledge gap, we combined fully invasive neural multisite recordings in patients undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery with normative MRI-based whole-brain connectomics. Our findings demonstrate that dopamine and stimulation exert distinct mesoscale effects through modulation of local neural population activity. In contrast, at the macroscale, stimulation mimics dopamine in its suppression of excessive interregional network synchrony associated with indirect and hyperdirect cortex - basal ganglia pathways. Our results provide a better understanding of the circuit mechanisms of dopamine and deep brain stimulation, laying the foundation for advanced closed-loop neurostimulation therapies.
深部脑刺激是一种脑回路干预手段，可调节不同的神经通路，以缓解脑部疾病患者的神经症状。在帕金森病中，丘脑底核深部脑刺激在临床上模拟了多巴胺能药物治疗的效果，但皮质-基底神经节网络上的共同通路机制尚不清楚。为了填补这一关键的知识空白，我们将接受深部脑刺激手术患者的全侵入性神经多部位记录与基于标准化MRI的全脑连接组学相结合。我们的研究结果表明，多巴胺和刺激通过调节局部神经群体活动发挥不同的中尺度效应。相比之下，在宏观尺度上，刺激在抑制与间接和超直接皮质-基底神经节通路相关的过度区域间网络同步方面模拟了多巴胺的作用。我们的结果有助于更好地理解多巴胺和深部脑刺激的回路机制，为先进的闭环神经刺激疗法奠定基础。
