Current Science Review

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Our Current Science Review ("CSR") is designed to summarize the most recent research on DBS to the general public in a comprehensive, yet simplified fashion. Due to copyright laws we are not allowed to put full articles on the website, but we want to provide the reader with understandable snippets of what is going on in the research world.  The CSR will be updated monthly to keep you informed of further insights into DBS therapy, including DBS advances, limitations, strengths, and weaknesses.  We try to monitor "hot topics" in research and provide such information to our readers.

The idea for our CSR is structured after the valuable service that Joe Bruman offered to the Parkinson's community. In 1994, when the Web was in its infancy, Joe began publishing an easy-to-read overview of published science and medical news on Parkinson's disease. He updated it monthly until his death in 2003. We acknowledge Joe's contribution, and our researchers are continuing his tradition for the DBS-STN community. As Joe has eloquently stated on his site, "CSR items describe current work which may or may NOT prove to be important. Each one is just a piece of the big PD jigsaw puzzle. … CSR provides an inkling of where we are, what lies ahead."

A few other points are noteworthy:

  1. Should you desire a copy of the full article, the articles that we review are available most often for a fee (ranges from $15-50) online or through medical or public libraries (fees will vary).  The fees are set up by the journal in which it is published. DBS-STN.org or the Parkinson's Alliance is not affiliated with these journals, and we do not receive any money from the purchase of any article.
  2. We provide a link to a website (www.pubmed.com) that will help the reader find the article online.  If you go to www.pubmed.com through the link on our website to search for an article in which you are interested, you should be brought directly to that article's information.  Usually on the upper left hand area of the screen there will be 1-2 buttons that will say something to the effect of "click here to read" or "full text pdf," and the name of the journal will be listed.  Click on one of those buttons and you should be redirected to the journals website (e.g. Neurology, Movement Disorders, etc). 
  3. Most of the journal websites are pretty self explanatory on how to order the journal and are upfront about their fees.  It may be possible to order the article through your local library, which will vary from library to library.  Some hospitals may also allow patients to make a copy of an article that is available in their medical libraries.  This will also vary per hospital, and you can find out about a hospital's resources by asking the hospital libraries directly.

The information contained in our CSR is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

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Current Science Review — May/Jun 2010

McIntyre CC, Frankenmolle AM, Wu J, Noecker AM, Alberts JL.. Customizing deep brain stimulation to the patient using computational models.. , Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2009; 2009:4228-9.

Click here to read a longer version of this review.

The purpose of this article was to compare DBS STN stimulator settings on cognitive and motor tasks in people with Parkinson’s disease (PWP) that were created on either a clinician’s skill and experience or settings generated by a computerized model.  One problem with DBS stimulator settings is that there are 1000’s of possible settings and it is not feasible (time or discomfort) for clinicians or PWPs to go through all of the possibilities in order to find the “perfect” setting.  Therefore, it would be ideal to find the least invasive and most efficient method to set stimulator parameters for the best possible motor improvement and minimization of cognitive dysfunction for PWP.

The study found that utilizing the computer based model resulted in less power used by the stimulator and the same amount of improvement in motor scores as found in the model created by the clinician.  When they looked specifically at the cognitive tasks they found no difference between the two models when tasks were easy.  However, as complexity increased, when the computer generated stimulator settings were used, the PWP did better than when the settings were generated by clinicians alone.  The authors suggest that the difference was caused by the DBS stimulation spreading to areas adjacent to the motor portion of the STN, which then disrupts the full potential of one’s cognitive abilities.  A goal of the computer based model would then be to prevent spreading of the DBS stimulation to areas that are involved in cognitive functions while at the same time stimulating areas to maximize motoric treatment efficacy.  The authors suggest that based on their results, the computer based models should be used to supplement the stimulator parameter selection along with the clinician in order to best optimize the efficacy of the DBS STN.

Click here for the PubMed Abstract