Findings from Department of Biomedical Engineering Advance Knowledge in Central Nervous System (Optogenetic fMRI reveals therapeutic circuits of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation).

A recent report from the Department of Biomedical Engineering discusses the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for managing motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). The researchers used optogenetic functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze the effects of DBS on the brain activity of female hemi-parkinsonian rats. They found that DBS at different stimulation pulse repetition rates led to alterations in blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signals in specific brain regions, including the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr), globus pallidus (GP), and caudate putamen (CPu). The study suggests that the activation of GP and CPu plays a critical role in the therapeutic mechanisms of DBS. [Extracted from the article]