Article
Clinical Neurology
Rafael Rodriguez-Rojas, Jose A. Pineda-Pardo, Jorge Manez-Miro, Alicia Sanchez-Turel, Raul Martinez-Fernandez, Marta del Alamo, Mahlon DeLong, Jose A. Obeso
Summary: This study aimed to characterize the functional organization of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and its correlation with motor outcomes induced by subthalamotomy. Results showed a gradient of connections to sensorimotor, supplementary-motor, associative, and limbic cortical regions within the STN, with overlapping zones. The study supported an interplay between segregation and integration of cortico-subthalamic projections, suggesting the coexistence of parallel and convergent information processing.
MOVEMENT DISORDERS
(2022)
Article
Neuroimaging
Bethany R. Isaacs, Margot Heijmans, Mark L. Kuijf, Pieter L. Kubben, Linda Ackermans, Yasin Temel, Max C. Keuken, Birte U. Forstmann
Summary: The study found that neurosurgeons are stable in selecting the DBS target site across MRI field strength, MRI contrast, and repetitions. However, the analysis of coordinates in MNI space revealed that the actual selected location of the electrode is seemingly more ventral when using the 3 T scan compared to the 7 T scans.
NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL
(2021)
Letter
Clinical Neurology
Yunhao Wu, Yixin Pan, Peng Huang, Tao Wang, Chencheng Zhang, Bomin Sun, Dianyou Li, Hongxia Li, Yiwen Wu
Summary: Lingual dystonia is a rare disease that severely affects daily activities. Previous studies have shown the efficacy of GPi-DBS on patients with refractory lingual symptoms, but high-level evidence is lacking. Our retrospective study on six lingual dystonia patients treated with subthalamic DBS demonstrates its immediate and long-lasting efficacy.
PARKINSONISM & RELATED DISORDERS
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Jennifer A. MacLean, Jaya Nataraj, Jordan Davies, Aleksandra Zakharova, Joshua Kurtz, Mark A. Liker, Joffre Olaya, Terence D. Sanger
Summary: Deep brain stimulation targeting Pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) was successfully used in two pediatric patients and one young adult with childhood-onset dystonia, showing clinically significant improvements in Burke-Fahn-Marsden Dystonia Rating Scale (BFMDRS) post operatively. This study represents the first reported DBS targeting of PPN in pediatric patients and suggests PPN as a potential target for childhood-onset dystonia with axial and orofacial symptoms.
FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Joseph W. Olson, Arie Nakhmani, Zachary T. Irwin, Lloyd J. Edwards, Christopher L. Gonzalez, Melissa H. Wade, Sarah D. Black, Mohammad Z. Awad, Daniel J. Kuhman, Christopher P. Hurt, Bart L. Guthrie, Harrison C. Walker
Summary: This study investigates the characteristics of dystonia in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and its relationship with brain electrophysiology. The results show significant differences in spectral power in the motor cortex and subcortical areas during repetitive limb movements, especially in PD patients with dystonia.
MOVEMENT DISORDERS
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Suzhen Lin, Yimei Shu, Chencheng Zhang, Lingbing Wang, Peng Huang, Yixin Pan, Jianqing Ding, Bomin Sun, Dianyou Li, Yiwen Wu
Summary: This study compared the effectiveness of targeting the globus pallidus internus (GPi) and the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in patients with isolated dystonia. The results showed that STN-DBS had superior effects at 1 month, 1 year, and 3 years, while GPi-DBS was better for axis symptoms, particularly for trunk involvement. STN-DBS was also more effective for symptoms involving the eyes and generalized dystonia, and required less electrical energy.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Raul Martinez-Fernandez, Elena Natera-Villalba, Jorge U. Manez Miro, Rafael Rodriguez-Rojas, Marta Marta del alamo, Jose Angel Pineda-Pardo, Claudia Ammann, Ignacio Obeso, David Mata-Marin, Frida Hernandez-Fernandez, Carmen Gasca-Salas, Michele Matarazzo, Fernando Alonso-Frech, Jose A. Obeso
Summary: This study reports the long-term outcome of patients with Parkinson disease (PD) treated with unilateral magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound subthalamotomy (FUS-STN). The results show that FUS-STN has sustained improvement on the motor features of PD over several years.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Christopher L. Groth, Mark Brown, Justin M. Honce, Erika Shelton, Stefan H. Sillau, Brian D. Berman
Summary: This study found significantly reduced GABA levels in the thalamus of cervical dystonia patients, which positively correlated with disease duration. While GABA(A) receptor availability did not differ between patients and controls, it negatively correlated with disease duration and dystonia severity.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Julien Galley, Reto Sutter, Christoph Germann, Florian Wanivenhaus, Daniel Nanz
Summary: Non-invasive 3D-DESS MR-imaging at 3 and 7 T successfully visualizes the cervical nerve roots within the spinal canal and has the potential to provide precise assessments of their micro-anatomy. Interobserver agreement was substantial to almost perfect, and the ICC for the number of identified rootlets was 0.80.
EUROPEAN RADIOLOGY
(2021)
Editorial Material
Neurosciences
Bin Xiao, Eng-King Tan
Summary: In a recent study, researchers including Zhang and Roy discovered that neurons in the parafascicular thalamus project to three distinct neural structures in the basal ganglia. These neural circuits were found to be associated with specific motor and non-motor symptoms in a Parkinson's disease mouse model. The findings offer potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of this disease.
TRENDS IN NEUROSCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Mingming Zhao, Hui Chen, Xin Yan, Jianguang Li, Chao Lu, Bin Cui, Wenjun Huo, Shouming Cao, Hui Guo, Shuang Liu, Chunjuan Yang, Ying Liu, Feng Yin
Summary: This study aimed to define an optimal location using the medial subthalamic nucleus border as an anatomical reference and to explore the influence of the location of active contacts on outcomes and programming strategies in patients with primary dystonia. The findings showed that stimulation contacts located behind or adjacent to the medial STN border were most likely to produce ideal therapeutic effects.
FRONTIERS IN AGING NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Qing-Pei Hao, Wen-Tao Zheng, Zi-Hao Zhang, Ye-Zu Liu, Hu Ding, Jia Ouyang, Zhi Liu, Guang-Yong Wu, Ru-En Liu
Summary: This study found that bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation is a safe and effective alternative treatment for primary Meige syndrome, leading to improvements in motor function and quality of life. However, it did not yield significant amelioration in cognitive, mental, sleep status and other neuropsychological functions after 3 years of neurostimulation.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Shinsuke Fujioka, Takashi Morishita, Koichi Takano, Nobutaka Takahashi, Kanako Kurihara, Akihiro Nishida, Takayasu Mishima, Midori Suenaga, Yoichi Matsunaga, Yoshi Tsuboi
Summary: After analyzing and comparing the volumes of the subthalamic nucleus and whole cerebrum in patients with PSP, MSA, PD, and CBS, it was found that the volume of the subthalamic nucleus may be a useful diagnostic marker for PSP to differentiate it from other neurodegenerative parkinsonian disorders.
JOURNAL OF THE NEUROLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Roberto Eleopra, Sara Rinaldo, Grazia Devigili, Massimo Mondani, Stanislao D'Auria, Nico Golfre Andreasi, Miran Skrap, Christian Lettieri
Summary: The study compared the clinical outcomes of two GPi-DBS surgical techniques for primary dystonia patients and found that the frameless technique is safe and well-tolerated, with similar effectiveness to the frame-based technique, without surgical complications.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Weibin He, Hongxia Li, Yijie Lai, Yunhao Wu, Yiwen Wu, Adolfo Ramirez-Zamora, Wei Yi, Chencheng Zhang
Summary: STN-DBS is an effective treatment for advanced PD and isolated dystonia, improving major motor symptoms; however, it can lead to weight gain postoperatively. In patients with isolated dystonia, postoperative weight gain is more common in females, and is influenced by preoperative weight and sex, but not by the efficacy of STN-DBS on motor symptoms.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Christina Lubinus, Joan Orpella, Anne Keitel, Helene Gudi-Mindermann, Andreas K. Engel, Brigitte Roeder, Johanna M. Rimmele
Summary: Research has shown that congenital blindness can result in changes in neural spectral profiles in visual, auditory, and right frontal areas, possibly related to adaptive auditory and higher cognitive processing. Additionally, occipital alpha rhythms are closely correlated with microstructural white matter properties across the posterior parts of the brain, suggesting selective modulation of spectral profiles by visual deprivation reflecting structural and functional adaptation.
Article
Neurosciences
Frederik D. Weber, Gernot G. Supp, Jens G. Klinzing, Matthias Moelle, Andreas K. Engel, Jan Born
Summary: The study found that there is a temporal relationship between spindles and gamma activity, but the phase of this coupling varies across different spindles. This suggests that spindles might help synchronize gamma activity occurring in larger cortical networks and link local memory processing between distributed networks.
Article
Neurosciences
Jonathan Daume, Peng Wang, Alexander Maye, Dan Zhang, Andreas K. Engel
Summary: The study found that phase alignments of neural oscillations are stronger in sensory, parietal, and frontal brain areas when participants are engaged in a temporal prediction task. This alignment correlates with prediction performance in the cerebellum and visual cortex, suggesting that low-frequency neural oscillations underlie temporal predictions in a non-rhythmic visual and crossmodal context.
Article
Neurosciences
Jiawei Li, Bo Hong, Guido Nolte, Andreas K. Engel, Dan Zhang
Summary: The study aimed to identify the neural signatures of preparatory processing of upcoming speech by analyzing the delta and alpha band phase responses. The results showed distinct neural signatures for attentional modulation through TRF-based amplitude responses, revealing how the brain gets prepared to process upcoming speech in a naturalistic context.
COGNITIVE NEURODYNAMICS
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Marina Fiene, Jan-Ole Radecke, Jonas Misselhorn, Malte Sengelmann, Christoph S. Herrmann, Till R. Schneider, Bettina C. Schwab, Andreas K. Engel
Summary: The study found that modulating the temporal pattern of neural excitability in the visual cortex through transcranial alternating current stimulation can affect human brightness perception of rhythmic visual stimuli. The results show that brightness perception is modulated depending on the phase shift between sensory and electrical stimulation, and the modulatory effects depend on neural phase stability.
Article
Neurosciences
Jonas R. Wagner, Miriam Schaper, Wolfgang Hamel, Manfred Westphal, Christian Gerloff, Andreas K. Engel, Christian K. E. Moll, Alessandro Gulberti, Monika Poetter-Nerger
Summary: The study demonstrates that STN+SN DBS is more effective than conventional STN DBS in improving gait impairment in Parkinson's disease patients. The cortical activity of patients during resting and effective stepping shows excessive synchronization in certain frequency bands, which is reduced by DBS. Different patterns of cortical activity are observed during freezing episodes with STN DBS and STN+SN DBS.
FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Editorial Material
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Jianwei Zhang, Stefan Wermter, Fuchun Sun, Changshui Zhang, Andreas K. Engel, Brigitte Roeder, Xiaolan Fu, Gui Xue
FRONTIERS IN NEUROROBOTICS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Zhuoran Li, Bo Hong, Daifa Wang, Guido Nolte, Andreas K. Engel, Dan Zhang
Summary: As the world becomes increasingly globalized, non-native language communication is in higher demand; however, the presence of background noise in everyday life poses a significant challenge to non-native speech comprehension. This study used an interbrain approach based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate how individuals adapt to comprehend non-native speech information in noisy environments. The findings demonstrated a significant neural coupling in the right hemisphere between listeners and speakers during the processing of non-native speech. Furthermore, certain neural couplings in the listener's right superior temporal gyrus, the right middle temporal gyrus, and the right postcentral gyrus were positively correlated with individual comprehension performance at the strongest noise level.
Editorial Material
Neurosciences
Andreas K. Engel, Paul F. M. J. Verschure, Danica Kragic, Daniel Polani, Alfred O. Effenberg, Peter Koenig
FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Alexander Maye, Marvin Mutz, Andreas K. Engel
Summary: The spatially-coded SSVEP BCI uses the retinotopic map in the human visual pathway to infer gaze direction, providing advantages of reducing visual fatigue and improving user comfort. By incorporating a feedback channel, the BCI is able to accumulate valid training data while solving a spatial navigation task. The results show that the spatially-coded BCI achieves an average accuracy of 69 +/- 15% initially, which improves to 87 +/- 9% after multiple task completions.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE METHODS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Arzu Ceylan Has Silemek, Guido Nolte, Jana Poettgen, Andreas K. Engel, Christoph Heesen, Stefan M. Gold, Jan-Patrick Stellmann
Summary: This study aimed to explore the longitudinal reorganization of brain networks in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients over a period of 2 years, and analyze its association with cognition. The results showed a decline in hub connectivity and global connectivity at a structural level in MS patients, while the hub connectivity in the default-mode network was preserved. In addition, the network models based on functional MRI and magnetoencephalography were similar to diffusion tensor imaging, but had weaker associations with cognition in MS patients.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH
(2023)
Editorial Material
Behavioral Sciences
Andreas K. Engel, Christian Gerloff
Summary: Dynamic coupling of neural signals is a distinct feature of brain networks, and its impact on network functions is still a topic of debate. By conducting experiments using intervention techniques, answers to this longstanding question may be within reach.
TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Alessandro Gulberti, Jonas R. Wagner, Martin A. Horn, Jacob H. Reuss, Miriam Heise, Johannes A. Koeppen, Hans O. Pinnschmidt, Manfred Westphal, Andreas K. Engel, Christian Gerloff, Andrew Sharott, Wolfgang Hamel, Christian K. E. Moll, Monika Poetter-Nerger
Summary: In this study, the role of subthalamic and nigral neurons in the control of parkinsonian gait was assessed using intraoperative microelectrode recordings. The results suggest that subthalamic nucleus neurons are involved in motor aspects of gait control, while substantia nigra neurons are associated with attentional aspects.
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Jianzhi Lyu, Alexander Maye, Michael Goerner, Philipp Ruppel, Andreas K. Engel, Jianwei Zhang
Summary: In human-robot collaboration scenarios, ensuring human safety is crucial, which limits the speed and torque of robot drives. Maintaining safe working distances and coordinating tasks efficiently is especially important for complex tasks with flexible human behavior. In this study, a brain-computer interface technique is employed to predict impending actions based on the human's overt attention, improving collaboration efficiency and safety distance.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROROBOTICS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Xinmiao Zhang, Jiawei Li, Zhuoran Li, Bo Hong, Tongxiang Diao, Xin Ma, Guido Nolte, Andreas K. Engel, Dan Zhang
Summary: This study investigated the neural tracking of acoustic and semantic speech information during speech comprehension in noisy environments. The results showed that the neural responses to both acoustic and semantic features of speech were relatively stable regardless of the level of noise. In particular, the study revealed robust leading responses to speech semantics, suggesting a possible predictive mechanism for maintaining reliable speech comprehension in noisy environments.
