Summary
It has been reported that parkinsonian and essential tremor can be controlled by deep brain stimulation or radiofrequency lesion within the cluster of cells with a tremor-frequency activity in the ventral thalamic nuclei. However, there have been very few reports about the exact localization of cells with tremor-frequency activity in the ventral thalamic nuclei. In the present study, we investigated the localization of cells with tremor-frequency activity in the ventral thalamic nuclei employing autopower spectrum and coherence analysis. Activity of a total of 130 cells, 63 in patients with parkinsonian tremor and 67 in patients with essential tremor, were recorded from the area anterior to the nucleus ventralis caudalis. Among these cells, 31 cells showed a coherence of greater than 0.4 to the electromyographic activity of both agonist and antagonist muscles. The proportion of cells exhibiting tremor-frequency activity were 26.8% in the nucleus ventralis intermedius (Vim) and 25.0% in the nuclei ventralis oralis posterior et anterior (Vop + Voa). There were no significant differences in proportion by nuclear location or disease. The present study demonstrated that cells with tremor-frequency activity are widely distributed over the area extending from the Vim to the Vop + Voa. This indicates that the best location for placeing electrodes for deep brain stimulation or a radiofrequency lesion cannot be defined by identification of cells with tremor-frequency activity alone.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Albe-Fessard D (1973) Electrophysiological methods for the identification of thalamic nuclei. Z Neurol 205: 15–28
Bates JAV (1969) The significance of tremor phasic units in the human thalamus. In: Gillingham FJ, Donaldson IML (eds) Third Symposium on Parkinson’s disease. E and S Livingstone, Edinburgh, pp 118–124
Benignus VA (1969) Estimation of the coherence spectrum and its confidence interval using the fast fourier transform. IEEE Trans Audio Electroacoustic 17: 145–150
Hirai T, Miyazaki M, Nakajima H, Shibazaki T, Ohye C (1983) The correlation between tremor characteristics and the predicted volume of effective lesions in stereotactic nucleus ventralis intermedius thalamotomy. Brain 106: 1001–1018
Jasper HH, Bertrand G (1966) Thalamic units involved in somatic sensation and voluntary and involuntary movements in man. In: Purpura DP, Yahr MD (eds) The thalamus. Columbia University Press, New York, pp 365–390
Lamarre Y, Joffroy AJ (1979) Experimental tremor in monkey: activity of thalamic and precentral cortical neurons in the absence of peripheral feedback. Adv Neurol 24: 109–122
Lenz FA, Tasker RR, Kwan HC, Schnider S, Kwong R, Murayama Y, Dostrovsky JO, Murphy JT (1988) Single unit analysis of the human ventral thalamic nuclear group: Correlation of thalamic “tremor cells” with the 3–6 Hz component of parkinsonian tremor. J Neurosci 8: 754–764
Lenz FA, Kwan HC, Dostrovsky JO, Tasker RR, Murphy JT, Lenz YE (1990) Single unit analysis of the human ventral thalamic nuclear group: activity correlated with movement. Brain 113:1795–1821
Lenz FA, Kwan HC, Martin RL, Tasker RR, Dostrovsky JO, Lenz YE (1994) Single unit analysis of the human ventral thalamic nuclear group: tremor-related activity in functionally identified cells. Brain 117: 531–543
Mima T, Hallett M (1999) Corticomuscular coherence: Review. J Clin Neurophysiol 16: 501–511
Nagaseki Y, Shibasaki T, Hirai T, Kawashima Y, Hirato M, Wada H, Miyazaki M, Ohye C (1986) Long-term follow-up results of selective VIM-thalamotomy. J Neurosurg 65: 296–302
Ohye C, Saito Y, Fukamachi A, Narabayashi H (1974) An analysis of the spontaneous rhythmic and non-rhythmic burst discharge in the human thalamus. J Neurol Sci 22: 245–259
Ohye C, Albe-Fessard D (1978) Rhythmic discharges related to tremor in humans and monkeys. In: Chalazonitis N, Boisson M (eds) Abnormal neuronal discharges. Raven Press, New York, pp 37–48
Ohye C, Narabayashi H (1979) Physiological study of presumed ventralis intermedius neurons in the human thalamus. J Neurosurg 50: 290–297
Ohye C, Shibazaki T, Hirai T, Wada H, Hirato M, Kawashima Y (1989) Further physiological observations on the ventralis intermedius neurons in the human thalamus. J Neurophysiol 61: 488–500
Tasker RR, Organ LW, Hawrylyshyn PA (1982) The thalamus and midbrain of man: a physiological atlas using electrical stimulation. Charles C Thomas, Springfield
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Wien
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kobayashi, K., Katayama, Y., Kasai, M., Oshima, H., Fukaya, C., Yamamoto, T. (2003). Localization of thalamic cells with tremor-frequency activity in Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. In: Katayama, Y. (eds) Neurosurgical Re-Engineering of the Damaged Brain and Spinal Cord. Acta Neurochirurgica Supplements, vol 87. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-6081-7_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-6081-7_29
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
Print ISBN: 978-3-7091-7223-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-6081-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive