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Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Controlling Parkinson's Disease With Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation
Published on: July 16, 2014
Pedunculopontine nucleus deep brain stimulation changes spinal cord excitability in Parkinson's disease patients
Mariangela Pierantozzi1, Maria Giuseppina Palmieri, Salvatore Galati
1Department of Neuroscience, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy.
Abstract:
Bilateral peduncolopontine nucleus (PPN) and subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) was performed in six-advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. We report the effect of both PPN-DBS (25 Hz) and STN-DBS (185 Hz) on patient spinal reflex excitability by utilizing the soleus-Hoffman reflex (HR) threshold. Compared to controls (n = 9), patients showed an increase of HR-threshold, which was scarcely affected by levodopa, but significantly reduced by DBS. In particular, we found that PPN-DBS alone, or plus STN-DBS induced a complete recovery of HR-threshold up to control values. The HR-threshold changes, although do not allow to investigate the contribution of specific intraspinal pathways, suggest that PPN may play a key-role in modulating spinal excitability in PD possibly by improving the basal ganglia-brainstem descending system activity.
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