Deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease: association between stimulation parameters and cognitive performance

Chronic subthalamic nucleus stimulation produces inconsistent patterns of cognitive change in Parkinson's disease patients. Individually tailored stimulation parameters may contribute to this variable pattern of change. Systematic variation of amplitude, pulse width, and rate of stimulation has been reported to produce unique changes in motor and limbic response. To evaluate the association between stimulation parameters and cognitive/behavioral response, neuropsychological performance and stimulation parameter data of 8 Parkinson's disease patients were submitted to Pearson r correlation analysis. Results indicate that each stimulation parameter was significantly associated with a subset of measures. The current findings raise the possibility that adverse cognitive/behavioral responses may be treated through parameter modification while maintaining motor symptom efficacy.