Deep brain stimulation papers 2

(13 page pdf) Anderson et al (2004) Mechanisms of deep brain stimulation: an intracellular study in rat thalamus. J Physiol 559(pt1), p301-313. Intracellular recordings from thalamic rat slices during 125hz electrical stimulation. The authors find two distinct membrane responses that may underlie 'functional inactivation'.

(11 page pdf) McIntyre et al (2004) How does deep brain stimulation work? Present understanding and future questions. J Clin Neurophysiol 21(1), p40-50. Review paper that looks at four hypotheses for the mechanism of DBS in movement disorders: depolarization blockade, synaptic inhibition, synaptic depression and stimulation-induced modulation of pathologic network activity.

(20 page pdf) Feng et al (2007) Toward closed-loop optimization of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease: Concepts and lessons from a computational model. J Neural Engineering 4(2), l14-21. The authors describe an algorithm for closed-loop selection of novel, more efficient DBS waveforms.

(3 page pdf) Kiss et al (in press) Frequency dependent effects of deep brain stimulation: Clinical manifestations and neural network modelling. When low DBS frequencies (2,5hz-20hz) are applied to traditional targets there is a worsening of motor symptoms, suggesting an activating as opposed to inhibiting effect and possibly indicating appropriate frequencies for DA(t) and 5HT(t).

Bekar et al (2007) Adenosine is crucial for deep brain stimulation-mediated attenuation of tremor. Nature Medicine 14, p75-80. The authors suggest that DBS induced inhibition of thalamic tissue is mediated by stimulation of local adenosine receptors.

In other news, Entitled Opinions is a Stanford University radio show hosted by Italian lit prof Robert Harrison. The 1hr long discussions are on iTunes (why does everything academic on iTunes seem to come out of Stanford or Berkeley? Mostly litterature, including some gems like Heidegger, Freud, Nabokov and the Historical Jesus. I've only heard one full interview (a stimulating interview with a gloomy Richard Rorty) but they all seem very authentic, if you're in that kind of mood.