Neural oscillations and phase-amplitude coupling in Parkinson’s disease

Oscillatory neural activity in different frequency bands and phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) are hypothesized to be biomarkers of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Might these activity features help explain PD motor dysfunction, and serve as viable targets for closed-loop deep brain stimulation (DBS)? In this podcast, Editor-in-Chief Bill Yates (University of Pittsburgh) talks with David Escobar Sanabria (Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota) and Luke Johnson (Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota) about a recent study which explored these questions. Their findings helped to characterize these biomarkers across various vigilance states, and to build a foundation for future therapeutic techniques.

Parkinsonism and vigilance: alteration in neural oscillatory activity and phase-amplitude coupling in the basal ganglia and motor cortex
David Escobar Sanabria, Luke A. Johnson, Shane D. Nebeck, Jianyu Zhang, Matthew D. Johnson, Kenneth B. Baker, Gregory F. Molnar, Jerrold L. Vitek
Journal of Neurophysiology, published online November 3, 2017. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00388.2017.