Somatosensory stimulation therapies for movement disorders

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The goal of this project is to develop better ways to treat motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. People with Parkinson’s disease typically have higher amounts of synchronization across sensorimotor brain areas especially in the beta bands. This abnormal synchrony is thought to impede the production of normal motor patterns. Breaking up that excess synchrony can potentially improve motor symptoms and may help to renormalize brain network functioning. To that end, somatosensory stimulation will be used in a rat model of Parkinson’s disease to try to disrupt the excess brain network synchrony seen in Parkinson’s disease. Motor improvements and brain network changes will be directly compared when stimulation is used to activate two types of somatosensory receptors: 1) proprioceptive receptors (via electrically induced twitches in limb muscles), and 2) cutaneous receptors (via subcutaneous stimulation to activate the cutaneous receptors directly). Additionally, two types of stimulation patterns will also be compared: 1) a consistent desynchronizing pattern, and 2) a randomly varying pattern. Motor activity will be quantified before, during and after each combination of stimulation options. The stimulation option that improves motor performance the most will then be further assessed to determine whether it’s best to continuously apply that type of stimulation (open loop) or to only turn it on when the brain is exhibiting excess synchrony (closed loop). The results of this study will guide future human testing and could provide a less risky, non- or minimally invasive treatment option with fewer side effects than current stimulation options like deep brain stimulation.