Objective: To investigate a correlation between the subthalamic nucleus (STN) local field potentials (LFP) and attentional performance in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients.

Background: Attentional deficits affect PD patients with a massive impact on cognitive and motor tasks. Understanding the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying cognitive and motor performance should open new perspectives in neuromodulation.

Method: Intraoperative STN LFP was recorded in movement and rest from 23 PD patients. Signals (n = 37) were downsampled at 1 kHz, notch filtered at 60 Hz, bandpass filtered (2–200 Hz), and z-scored normalized. Spectral analysis was performed through Welch periodograms. Signals were Hamming windowed (4s) with 50% overlap, followed by a square of the magnitude estimates of the discrete Fourier transform. Alpha bursts were assessed through the Continuous Wavelet Transform of LFP time-series, considering suprathreshold (55-90th percentile) amplitude envelope. We correlated the power spectral densities (PSD), and alpha bursts attribute from LFP with attentional test scores obtained preoperatively.

Results: Table-1 depicts demographic and clinical data. Figure-1 shows a significant negative correlation between low beta, high beta, and gamma PSD in rest with scores on Trial-A and Stroop tests. A positive correlation was observed between sustained attention test and low beta, just as the Stroop test and theta PSD (Figure 1). During movement, low-beta PSD disclosed a robust negative correlation with the Stroop test, parts 1 and 2 (Figure 2), whereas theta correlated positively with Stroop 1 score. Concerning alpha bursts in rest, we showed a positive correlation between burst probability with Trial-A and Stroop 1, which spanned the 55^th to 75^th threshold (Figure 3). Conversely, average burst duration negatively correlated with the Trial-A test (Figure 4). Significant negative correlations occurred between average alpha bursts strength and Sustained Attention test, Digit Span, and Corsi tests (Figure 5) during rest. Alpha power did not correlate with attentional scores.

Conclusion: High attentional performance may be associated with higher beta and gamma power of STN LFP. There was no correlation between alpha power and attentional scores. Nevertheless, the dynamic assessment showed that more frequent, short-lasting, and high-amplitude alpha bursts were associated with low attentional performance.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/local-field-potential-from-subthalamic-nucleus-correlate-with-attentional-performance-in-parkinsons-disease/