BACKGROUND Abnormal beta band activity in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is known to be exaggerated in patients with Parkinson's disease, and the amplitude of such activity has been associated with akinetic rigid symptoms. New devices for deep brain stimulation (DBS) that operate by adapting the stimulation parameters generally rely on the detection of beta activity amplitude modulations in these patients. Movement-related frequency modulation of beta oscillatory activity has been poorly investigated, despite being an attractive variable for extracting information about basal ganglia activity. OBJECTIVE We studied the STN oscillatory activity associated with locomotion and proposed a new approach to extract movement related information from beta band activity. METHODS We recorded bilateral local field potential of the STN in eight parkinsonian patients implanted with DBS electrodes during upright quiet standing and unperturbed walking. Neurophysiological recordings were combined with kinematic measurements and individual molecular brain imaging studies. We then determined the information carried by the STN oscillatory activity about locomotion and we identified task-specific biomarkers. RESULTS We found a gait-related peak frequency modulation of the beta band of STN recordings of parkinsonian patients. This novel biomarker and the associated power modulations were highly informative to detect the walking state (with respect to standing) in each single patient. CONCLUSION Frequency modulation in the human STN represents a fundamental aspect of information processing of locomotion. Our information-driven approach could significantly enrich the spectrum of Parkinson's neural markers, with input signals encoding ongoing tasks execution for an appropriate online tuning of DBS delivery.

中文翻译：

---

帕金森患者丘脑底核β振荡活动的步态相关频率调制

背景 已知在患有帕金森病的患者中，丘脑底核 (STN) 中的异常 β 带活动被夸大，并且这种活动的幅度与运动障碍的僵硬症状有关。通过调整刺激参数来操作的用于深部脑刺激 (DBS) 的新设备通常依赖于对这些患者的 β 活动幅度调制的检测。尽管是用于提取有关基底神经节活动的信息的有吸引力的变量，但对 β 振荡活动的运动相关频率调制的研究很少。目标我们研究了与运动相关的 STN 振荡活动，并提出了一种从 β 波段活动中提取运动相关信息的新方法。方法 我们记录了 8 名植入 DBS 电极的帕金森病患者在直立安静站立和不受干扰的行走过程中 STN 的双侧局部场电位。神经生理学记录与运动学测量和个体分子脑成像研究相结合。然后，我们确定了 STN 振荡活动携带的关于运动的信息，并确定了特定于任务的生物标志物。结果 我们发现了帕金森病患者 STN 记录的 β 波段的步态相关峰值频率调制。这种新颖的生物标志物和相关的功率调制对于检测每个患者的步行状态（相对于站立）具有很高的信息量。结论 人类 STN 中的频率调制代表了运动信息处理的一个基本方面。