Long-Lasting Desynchronization Effects of Coordinated Reset Stimulation Improved by Random Jitters

Abnormally strong synchronized activity is related to several neurological disorders, including essential tremor, epilepsy, and Parkinson's disease. Chronic high-frequency deep brain stimulation (HF DBS) is an established treatment for advanced Parkinson's disease. To reduce the delivered integral electrical current, novel theory-based stimulation techniques such as coordinated reset (CR) stimulation directly counteract the abnormal synchronous firing by delivering phase-shifted stimuli through multiple stimulation sites. In computational studies in neuronal networks with spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), it was shown that CR stimulation down-regulates synaptic weights and drives the network into an attractor of a stable desynchronized state. This led to desynchronization effects that outlasted the stimulation. Corresponding long-lasting therapeutic effects were observed in preclinical and clinical studies. Computational studies suggest that long-lasting effects of CR stimulation depend on the adjustment of the stimulation frequency to the dominant synchronous rhythm. This may limit clinical applicability as different pathological rhythms may coexist. To increase the robustness of the long-lasting effects, we study randomized versions of CR stimulation in networks of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons with STDP. Randomization is obtained by adding random jitters to the stimulation times and by shuffling the sequence of stimulation site activations. We study the correspo...
Source: Frontiers in Physiology - Category: Physiology Source Type: research