Modeling neural spiking activity in the sub-thalamic nucleus of Parkinson’s patients and a healthy primate

How neurons encode information about the outside world and how this processing changes when the brain is diseased are central questions in neuroscience and medicine. Historically, microelectrode recordings of single-unit neuronal activity have been confined to animal preparations. Recently, it has become possible to obtain single-unit recordings in humans undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery. In this study, we recorded neuronal activity from the sub-thalamic nucleus (STN) of the basal ganglia of patients with Parkinson´s disease (PD). In parallel, identical experiments were conducted on a healthy primate, providing a rare opportunity to analyze STN neuronal activity recorded in both the disease and healthy state during the same behavioral tasks. We developed point process models of STN neurons to capture neural spiking dynamics as a function of extrinsic stimuli and the neuron´s own spiking history. Although our findings are preliminary due to only one primate subject, we found pathological signatures in PD neural activity (not found in the primate) such as bursting, 10-30 Hz oscillations, and directional tuning prior to movement, which may directly relate to motor disorders observed in PD patients such as bradyk inesia, resting tremor and rigidity.