Motor and cognitive improvement by deep brain stimulation in a transgenic rat model of Huntington's disease

Altered activity of the globus pallidus externus (GPe) is responsible for at least part of the cognitive and motor symptoms of Huntington's disease (HD). In this study, we tested the hypothesis that bilateral globus pallidus (GP; equivalent of GPe in primates) deep brain stimulation (DBS) improves cognitive and motor symptoms in the first transgenic rat model of HD (tgHD rats). GP DBS with clinically relevant stimulation parameters resulted in a significant improvement of cognitive dysfunction and reduced the number of choreiform movements. This data indicate that GPe DBS can be used to treat cognitive and motor dysfunction in HD.