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Pedunculopontine nucleus microelectrode recordings in movement disorder patients

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Abstract

The pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) lies within the brainstem reticular formation and is involved in the motor control of gait and posture. Interest has focused recently on the PPN as a target for implantation of chronic deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes for Parkinson’s disease (PD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) therapy. The aim of this study was to examine the neurophysiology of the human PPN region and to identify neurophysiological landmarks that may aid the proper placement of DBS electrodes in the nucleus for the treatment of PD and PSP. Neuronal firing and local field potentials were recorded simultaneously from two independently driven microelectrodes during stereotactic neurosurgery for implantation of a unilateral DBS electrode in the PPN in five PD patients and two PSP patients. Within the PPN region, the majority (57%) of the neurons fired randomly while about 21% of the neurons exhibited ‘bursty’ firing. In addition, 21% of the neurons had a long action potential duration and significantly lower firing rate suggesting they were cholinergic neurons. A change in firing rate produced by passive and/or active contralateral limb movement was observed in 38% of the neurons that were tested in the PPN region. Interestingly, oscillatory local field potential activity in the beta frequency range (∼25 Hz) was also observed in the PPN region. These electrophysiological characteristics of the PPN region provide further support for the proposed role of this region in motor control. It remains to be seen to what extent the physiological characteristics of the neurons and the stimulation-evoked effects will permit reliable identification of PPN and determination of the optimal target for DBS therapy.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank all the patients who participated in this study and Yu Yan Poon for her help with acquiring clinical data. The work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant to JOD (MOP-42505). AML holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Neurosciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Med Sci Bldg 3302, 1 King’s College Circle, M5S 1A8, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Moran Weinberger, William D. Hutchison & Jonathan O. Dostrovsky

  2. Toronto Western Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Clement Hamani, William D. Hutchison, Elena Moro, Andres M. Lozano & Jonathan O. Dostrovsky

  3. Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Clement Hamani, Elena Moro & Andres M. Lozano

Authors
  1. Moran Weinberger
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  2. Clement Hamani
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  3. William D. Hutchison
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  4. Elena Moro
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  5. Andres M. Lozano
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  6. Jonathan O. Dostrovsky
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Correspondence to Jonathan O. Dostrovsky.

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Weinberger, M., Hamani, C., Hutchison, W.D. et al. Pedunculopontine nucleus microelectrode recordings in movement disorder patients. Exp Brain Res 188, 165–174 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1349-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1349-1

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