Skip Navigation



Brain Advance Access published online on July 7, 2004
Brain, doi:10.1093/brain/awh237
© 2004 by Guarantors of Brain
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
127/9/2131    most recent
awh237v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Sturman, M. M.
Right arrow Articles by Corcos, D. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Sturman, M. M.
Right arrow Articles by Corcos, D. M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Received March 31, 2004
Revised May 6, 2004
Accepted May 13, 2004

Article

Effects of subthalamic nucleus stimulation and medication on resting and postural tremor in Parkinson's disease

Molly M. Sturman 1*, David E. Vaillancourt 1, Leo Verhagen Metman 2, Roy A. E. Bakay 2, Daniel M. Corcos 3

1 Department of Movement Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
2 Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, Rush Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA
3 Department of Movement Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Physical Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: msturm3{at}uic.edu.


  Abstract

Summary Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and antiparkinsonian medication have proved to be effective treatments for tremor in Parkinson's disease. To date it is not known how and to what extent STN DBS alone and in combination with antiparkinsonian medication alters the pathophysiology of resting and postural tremor in idiopathic Parkinson's disease. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of STN DBS and antiparkinsonian medication on the neurophysiological characteristics of resting and postural hand tremor in Parkinson's disease. Resting and postural hand tremor were recorded using accelerometry and surface electromyography (EMG) from 10 Parkinson's disease patients and 10 matched control subjects. The Parkinson's disease subjects were examined under four treatment conditions: (i) off treatment; (ii) STN DBS; (iii) medication; and (iv) medication plus STN DBS. The amplitude, EMG frequency, regularity, and 1-8 Hz tremor-EMG coherence were analysed. Both STN DBS and medication reduced the amplitude, regularity and tremor-EMG coherence, and increased the EMG frequency of resting and postural tremor in Parkinson's disease. STN DBS was more effective than medication in reducing the amplitude and increasing the frequency of resting and postural tremor to healthy physiological levels. These findings provide strong evidence that effective STN DBS normalizes the amplitude and frequency of tremor. The findings suggest that neural activity in the STN is an important modulator of the neural network(s) responsible for both resting and postural tremor genesis in Parkinson's disease.

Keywords: tremor; Parkinson's disease; deep brain stimulation; subthalamic nucleus.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Physiol.Home page
C. N. Christakos, S. Erimaki, E. Anagnostou, and D. Anastasopoulos
Tremor-related motor unit firing in Parkinson's disease: implications for tremor genesis
J. Physiol., October 15, 2009; 587(20): 4811 - 4827.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
M. M. Sturman, D. E. Vaillancourt, and D. M. Corcos
Effects of Aging on the Regularity of Physiological Tremor
J Neurophysiol, June 1, 2005; 93(6): 3064 - 3074.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.