Affiliations: Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine 7 –
Neuromodulation and Virtual Institute of Neuromodulation, Research Center
Jülich, Jülich, Germany | Department of Stereotaxic and Functional Neurosurgery,
University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
Note: [] Corresponding author: Peter A. Tass, Institute of Neuroscience
and Medicine 7 – Neuromodulation and Virtual Institute of
Neuromodulation, Research Center Jülich, Leo-Brandt-Str., D-52425
Jülich, Germany. Tel.: +49 2461 61 2087; Fax: +49 2461 61 1880; E-mail:
p.tass@fz-juelich.de
Abstract: Purpose: Different stimulation techniques are introduced which
specifically modulate the slow synaptic dynamics in a neuronal network model of
the subthalamic nucleus with activity dependent synaptic plasticity. Methods: A modeling approach is utilized to investigate the effects
of the different stimulation techniques. In particular, the short-term and
long-term outcome is studied in a mathematical model for a population of
bursting STN neurons subject to synaptic plasticity with symmetric spike timing
characteristics. In our mathematical model in the absence of stimulation
synchronized network states with strong connectivity (modeling disease states)
as well as desynchronized states with weak connectivity (modeling healthy
states) are stable. Results: We demonstrate that different stimulation techniques induce
an anti-kindling by shifting the target population to a weakly connected,
desynchronized state. Intriguingly, long-term anti-kindling can even be
achieved although during stimulus delivery the neuronal synchrony hardly
decreases or even slightly increases. The therapeutic index and the impact of
inhibition, calculated to compare the different stimulation techniques,
indicate that coordinated rest stimulation might be particularly robust and
reliable. Conclusions: The presented stimulation strategies and the results of
our modeling study might have strong implications in the context of deep brain
stimulation.
