It has been suggested that slow oscillations in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) reflect top-down inputs from the medial prefrontal cortex, thus implementing behavior control. It is unclear, however, whether the STN oscillations are related to cortical activity in a bottom-up manner. To assess resting-state subcortico-cortical interactions, we recorded simultaneous scalp electroencephalographic activity and local field potentials in the STN (LFP-STN) in 11 patients with Parkinson’s disease implanted with deep brain stimulation electrodes in the on-medication state during rest. We assessed the cross-structural phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) between the STN and cortical activity within a wide frequency range of 1 to 100 Hz. The PAC was dominant between the δ/θ STN phase and β/γ cortical amplitude in most investigated scalp regions and between the δ cortical phase and θ/α STN amplitude in the frontal and temporal regions. The cross-frequency linkage between the slow oscillations of the LFP-STN activity and the amplitude of the scalp-recorded cortical activity at rest was demonstrated, and similar involvement of the left and right STNs in the coupling was observed. Our results suggest that the STN plays a role in both bottom-up and top-down processes within the subcortico-cortical circuitries of the human brain during the resting state. A relative left–right symmetry in the STN-cortex functional linkage was suggested. Practical treatment studies would be necessary to assess whether unilateral stimulation of the STN might be sufficient for treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

已经提出，丘脑下核（STN）中的缓慢振荡反映了来自内侧前额叶皮层的自上而下的输入，从而实现了行为控制。然而，尚不清楚STN振荡是否以自下而上的方式与皮层活动有关。为了评估静息状态的皮层下皮质相互作用，我们记录了11名帕金森氏病患者的头皮同时脑电图活动和STN（LFP-STN）的局部场电势，该患者在休息期间在治疗状态下植入了深部脑刺激电极。我们评估了STN和皮层活动之间的跨结构相振幅耦合（PAC）在1到100 Hz的宽频率范围内。在大多数被研究的头皮区域中，PAC在δ/θSTN相与β/γ皮质振幅之间以及在额叶和颞部区域在δ皮质相与θ/αSTN振幅之间起主导作用。证明了LFP-STN活动的缓慢振荡与静止状态下头皮记录的皮质活动的振幅之间的交叉频率联系，并且观察到左右STN相似地参与了耦合。我们的研究结果表明，在静息状态下，STN在人脑的皮质下皮质回路中自下而上和自上而下的过程中均起作用。建议在STN皮质功能连接中具有相对的左右对称性。