Somatosensory stimulation therapies for movement disorders

这个项目的目标是开发更好的方法来治疗帕金森氏症的运动症状 疾病。帕金森氏症患者通常具有更高的同步性 横跨感觉运动脑区，尤其是在β波段。这种不正常的同步是 被认为阻碍了正常运动模式的产生。打破这种过度的同步 可以潜在地改善运动症状，并可能有助于重新正常的大脑网络功能。 为此，将在帕金森氏病大鼠模型中使用体感刺激来尝试 以扰乱帕金森氏症患者大脑网络的过度同步。马达 当使用刺激时，改善和脑网络的变化将直接进行比较 激活两种类型的躯体感觉受体：1)本体感觉受体(通过电刺激 诱发四肢肌肉的抽动)，以及2)皮肤受体(通过皮下刺激 直接激活皮肤感受器)。此外，还将有两种类型的刺激模式 可以比较：1)一致的去同步模式，以及2)随机变化的模式。马达 活动将在每个刺激选项组合之前、期间和之后进行量化。这个 最大限度提高运动性能的刺激选项将进一步评估为 确定是否最好继续应用该类型的刺激(开环)或仅 当大脑表现出过度的同步性(闭合循环)时，打开它。这项研究的结果 将指导未来的人体测试，并可能提供风险较低、非或最小侵入性的 副作用比当前脑深部刺激方案更少的治疗方案 刺激。

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.