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Clinical Trial
. 2008 Nov;46(13):3162-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.07.012. Epub 2008 Jul 19.

Neural correlates of STN DBS-induced cognitive variability in Parkinson disease

M C Campbell  1 , M Karimi, P M Weaver, J Wu, D C Perantie, N A Golchin, S D Tabbal, J S Perlmutter, T Hershey
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Neural correlates of STN DBS-induced cognitive variability in Parkinson disease

M C Campbell et al. Neuropsychologia. 2008 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Although deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN DBS) in Parkinson disease (PD) improves motor function, it has variable effects on working memory (WM) and response inhibition (RI) performance. The purpose of this study was to determine the neural correlates of STN DBS-induced variability in cognitive performance.

Methods: We measured bilateral STN DBS-induced blood flow changes (PET and [(15)O]-water on one day) in the supplementary motor area (SMA), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC) as well as in exploratory ROIs defined by published meta-analyses. STN DBS-induced WM and RI changes (Spatial Delayed Response and Go-No-Go on the next day) were measured in 24 PD participants. On both days, participants withheld PD medications overnight and conditions (OFF vs. ON) were administered in a counterbalanced, double-blind manner.

Results: As predicted, STN DBS-induced DLPFC blood flow change correlated with change in WM, but not RI performance. Furthermore, ACC blood flow change correlated with change in RI but not WM performance. For both relationships, increased blood flow related to decreased cognitive performance in response to STN DBS. Of the exploratory regions, only blood flow changes in DLPFC and ACC were correlated with performance.

Conclusions: These results demonstrate that variability in the effects of STN DBS on cognitive performance relates to STN DBS-induced cortical blood flow changes in DLPFC and ACC. This relationship highlights the need to further understand the factors that mediate the variability in neural and cognitive response to STN DBS.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: Dr. Karimi received partial fellowship funding from Medtronic, Inc., the manufacturer of the implanted stimulators; no other authors have any conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Locations of the (A) anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), (B) right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC), and (C) dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) regions of interest. A 10.4mm sphere was placed on these locations.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scatterplots showing the significant correlations between (A) change in DLPFC blood flow and change in WM, as indicated by SDR errors (larger numbers reflect decreased performance with stimulation), and (B) change in ACC blood flow and change in RI, as indicated by GNG discriminability (larger numbers reflect improved performance with stimulation). Both correlations indicate that stimulation-induced decreased cognitive control performance is associated with stimulation-induced increased blood flow responses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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