Mesial temporal inhibition in a patient with deep brain stimulation of the anterior thalamus for epilepsy

Abstract

We investigated the electrophysiological effects of high-frequency anterior thalamic deep brain stimulation using intracerebral mesial and lateral temporal depth electrodes in a patient with intractable focal epilepsy. Monopolar and bipolar stimulation delivered to the thalamic anterior nucleus using the programmable ITREL II stimulation device led to a significant decrease of cross power spectral density and a nonsignificant decrease of coherence in ipsilateral hippocampal structures. No such effect was found in lateral temporal or contralateral sites. The hippocampal inhibition was clearly related to the voltage (> or =7 V) and frequency (> or =70 Hz) of the thalamic stimulus and occurred with a delay of approximately 60 s after stimulus onset.