Deep brain stimulation: increasing efficiency by alternative waveforms

Abstract

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is based on the effect of high frequency stimulation (HFS) in neuronal tissue. As a therapy option for patients suffering from e.g. Parkinson’s disease, DBS has been used for decades. Despite the widespread use, the effect of HFS on neurons is not fully investigated. Improving the stimulation efficiency und specificity could increase the efficiency of the INS (internal neuronal stimulator) as well as potentially reduce unwanted side effects. The effect of HFS on the GABAergic system was quantified using whole cell patch clamp electrophysiology during HFS stimulation in cortical human brain slices in vitro. Rectangular, sine, sawtooth and triangular waveforms were applied extracellularly. Since HFS has been hypothesized to increase the activity of the axons of GABAergic interneurons, a decrease in activity can be observed in the pyramidal cells that the interneurons project to. By isolating the incoming non- GABAergic events, we can filter out only the GABAA currents which can be verified using a GABAA antagonist. The results show that all the waveforms effectively increase the GABAA currents. The triangle waveform causes the highest significant increase in the activity which further increases over time after the stimulation was turned off.

Keywords

• deep brain stimulation
• gaba
• patch clamp
• waveforms