Modulation of sensory cortical activity by deep brain stimulation in advanced Parkinson's disease

Despite optimal oral drug treatment, about 90% of patients with Parkinson's disease develop motor fluctuation and dyskinesia within 5-10 years from the diagnosis. Moreover, the patients show non-motor symptoms in different sensory domains. Bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) applied to the subthalamic nucleus is considered the most effective treatment in advanced Parkinson's disease, and it has been suggested to affect sensorimotor modulation and relate to motor improvement in patients. However, observations on the relationship between sensorimotor activity and clinical improvement have remained sparse. Here, we studied the somatosensory evoked magnetic fields in 13 right-handed patients with advanced Parkinson's disease before and 7 months after stimulator implantation. Somatosensory processing was addressed with magnetoencephalography during alternated median nerve stimulation at both wrists. The strengths and the latencies of the ~60-ms responses at the contralateral primary somatosensory cortices were highly variable but detectable and reliably localized in all patients. The response strengths did not differ between preoperative and postoperative DBS_ON measurements. The change in the response strength between preoperative and postoperative condition in the dominant left hemisphere of our right-handed patients correlated with the alleviation of their motor symptoms (p = .04). However, the result did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. Magnetoencephalography appears an effective tool to explore non-motor effects in patients with Parkinson's disease, and it may help in understanding the neurophysiological basis of DBS. However, the high interindividual variability in the somatosensory responses and poor tolerability of DBS_OFF condition warrants larger patient groups and measurements also in non-medicated patients.