Pallidal Beta Activity Is Linked to Stimulation‐Induced Slowness in Dystonia

Abstract

Background Pallidal deep brain stimulation (DBS) effectively alleviates symptoms in dystonia patients, but may induce movement slowness as a side-effect. In Parkinson's disease, hypokinetic symptoms have been associated with increased beta oscillations (13–30 Hz). We hypothesize that this pattern is symptom-specific, thus accompanying DBS-induced slowness in dystonia.

Methods In 6 dystonia patients, pallidal rest recordings with a sensing-enabled DBS device were performed and tapping speed was assessed using marker-less pose estimation over 5 time points following cessation of DBS.

Results After cessation of pallidal stimulation, movement speed increased over time (P < 0.01). A linear mixed-effects model revealed that pallidal beta activity explained 77% of the variance in movement speed across patients (P = 0.01).

Conclusions The association between beta oscillations and slowness across disease entities provides further evidence for symptom-specific oscillatory patterns in the motor circuit. Our findings might help DBS therapy improvements, as DBS-devices able to adapt to beta oscillations are already commercially available. © 2023 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.