Abstract
Electroencephalographic activity over the sensorimotor cortex has been one of the best studied targets for neurofeedback therapy. Parkinson’s disease patients display abnormal brain rhythms in the motor cortex caused by increased synchrony in the basal ganglia-cortical pathway. Few studies have examined the effects of sensorimotor-based neurofeedback therapy in humans with PD. In this pilot study, one patient, diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 10 years prior, participated in two consecutive days of EEG neurofeedback training to increase sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) power over the motor cortex. Using a visual display connected to ongoing EEG, the patient voluntarily manipulated SMR power, and he/she was awarded with points to positively reinforce successful increases over a predefined threshold. Recorded EEG data were source localized and analyzed for the occurrence of high amplitude bursts of SMR activity as well as bursts in the beta frequency band in the precentral cortex. The rate of SMR bursts increased with each subsequent training session, while the rate of beta bursts only increased on the final session. Relative power in the beta band, a marker of PD symptom severity, decreased over the motor cortex in the later session. These results provide first evidence for the feasibility of SMR neurofeedback training as a non-invasive therapy for reducing Parkinson’s disease related activity and upregulating SMR in the human motor cortex.
Highlights
There is an increasing interest in developing non-invasive therapies for treating Parkinson’s and other motor-related disorders (Lee and Lozano, 2018)
Burst characteristics were analyzed across sessions of rewardbased sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) neurofeedback training in a single Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patient
The signal was filtered into high beta (17–30 Hz) and SMR frequency ranges (12–17 Hz) which is associated with motor inhibition and imagery
Summary
There is an increasing interest in developing non-invasive therapies for treating Parkinson’s and other motor-related disorders (Lee and Lozano, 2018). Development of therapies that rely on non-invasive methods would be easier to implement in a clinical or at-home setting and would reduce cost to the patient and provider. Lack of verifiable clinical measures has slowed progress in this area (Geraedts et al, 2018). Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is often characterized as an abnormal synchrony between basal ganglia and cortical areas, especially in the beta frequency range (Eusebio et al, 2009). DBS targeting the subthalamic nucleus aims to disrupt this synchrony (Wilson et al, 2011). How this subcortical activity is related to ongoing EEG measures from the scalp is less understood.
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