Brain Sensing in neurological and psychiatric Disorders
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Electrophysiologic brain sensing using implanted DBS systems in neurological and psychiatric disorders
IRAS ID
296010
Contact name
Patricia Limousin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Joint Research Office
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
Deep brain stimulation(DBS) is an effective treatment for a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders including Parkinson's disease, other movement disorders, epilepsy and Tourette's syndrome. It works by delivering electricity to malfunctioning brain circuits, interrupting the spread of incorrect information, and 're-setting' brain activity to a more normal patter.
Currently, stimulation is delivered in a continuous fashion. While this is reasonably effective, it does not mimic normal brain, which is continuously changing and adapting to different external circumstances such as movement, cognitive tasks and emotional stress.
New approaches to DBS aim to tailor the amount of stimulation delivered to the demands of the brain at a given point in time. This is more physiological and leads to improved outcomes, and also avoids excessive battery drain, by only delivering energy when it is needed, and no more than is needed.
In order to determine how much stimulation one should deliver at any given time, an accurate marker of disease within the brain is needed. This marker should reproducibly correlate with symptoms, and should change with effective DBS.
Brain sensing technology has, in recent years, been integrated into DBS systems, allowing in-vivo recording of brain activity. This study will examine brain activity in a number of neurological conditions, in order to identify disease-associated brain activity patterns, how they changes with medications and activity, and how they are modified by DBS. This will not only improve our understanding of these disorders, but will allow us to determine if these brain signals might act as useful markers for 'real-time' stimulation changes- so-called 'closed-loop' DBS systems.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/YH/0158
Date of REC Opinion
15 Aug 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion