Distinctive neuronal firing patterns in subterritories of the subthalamic nucleus

作者：Pozzi Nicolo G^*; Arnulfo Gabriele; Canessa Andrea; Steigerwald Frank; Nickl Robert; Homola Gyorgy A; Fato Marco M; Matthies Cordula; Pacchetti Claudio; Volkmann Jens; Isaias Ioannis U

来源：Clinical Neurophysiology, 2016, 127(11): 3387-3393.

DOI：10.1016/j.clinph.2016.09.004

• Micro-electrode recordings (MER)
• Subthalamic nucleus (STN)
• Deep brain stimulation (STN)
• Parkinson's disease (PD)

Objective: Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) is an established treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD). Anatomical connectivity analyses and task-related physiological studies have divided the STN into different functional domains: sensorimotor, limbic, and associative - located in its dorsolateral (dSTN), anteroventral (vSTN) and medial territories, respectively. Targeting sensorimotor STN is essential for stimulation efficacy and is supported by intraoperative micro-electrode recordings. A different neuronal signature in microelectrode recordings across STN subterritories was explored in this study.
Methods: Stable recordings from 30 PD patients were assigned to dSTN or vSTN by means of an anatomical method (based on fused computed tomography/magnetic resonance images) and through a priori tri-segmented partition of the recording itself. We computed the inter-spike interval (ISI) and ISI-characteristics, mean firing rate (MFR), discharge patterns and mean burst rate (MBR) of each detected single unit activity.
Results: We showed a different MBR between dSTN and vSTN (1.51 +/- 0.18 vs. 1.76 +/- 0.22 events/minute, Wilcoxon rank sum test, p < 0.05) and a trend in the difference between their MFR (12.78 vs. 15.05 Hz, Wilcoxon rank sum test, p = 0.053) only with the anatomically based method.
Conclusion: Burst firing differs across STN subterritories.
Significance: Different functions of subthalamic domains might be reflected by distinctive burst signalling of its subterritories.

• 出版日期2016-11