# Voltage imaging analysis of striatal network dynamics related to movement, Parkinson's disease and deep brain stimulation

> **NIH NIH R01** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS) · 2021 · $382,313

## Abstract

Title: Voltage imaging analysis of striatal network dynamics related to movement, Parkinson’s disease
and deep brain stimulation
Summary
 Deep brain stimulation (DBS) delivers high frequency electrical current stimulation through chronically
implanted electrodes. DBS has been FDA approved for managing several brain disorders, including Parkinson’s
disease (PD), epilepsy, essential tremor, and obsessive compulsive disorders. However, the therapeutic
mechanisms of DBS remain largely unknown. There are many intriguing hypothesis, but experimental evidence
has been limited. The increasing use of DBS for PD over the past 20 years has offered a unique opportunity to
record from various basal ganglia brain structures in patients, and accumulating evidence suggests that
exaggerated pathological local field potential (LFP) beta oscillations (~10-30Hz) in the cortical-basal ganglia
circuit are a signature of PD. Using exaggerated LFP beta oscillations recorded in STN as a target feature, a
recent study showed that closed-loop DBS could be more effective in alleviating akinesia in primate PD models,
highlighting the potential of using pathological beta oscillations as a biomarker for PD.
 PD is characterized by degeneration of SNpc dopamine neurons that project to the striatum. The fact that
DBS is effective at managing motor pathologies highlights that PD involves neural circuit deficits that can be
altered by electrical stimulation to achieve therapeutic effects. The central goal of this proposal is to study the
neural circuit dynamics related to PD, and the therapeutic mechanisms of DBS, using a novel single cell voltage
imaging technique that was recently developed in Dr. Han’s lab. Specifically, we will examine how individual
striatal neurons’ subthreshold membrane voltage and spiking patterns relate to bulk striatal LFP oscillations
during voluntary movement in healthy and dopamine-depleted PD conditions, and how DBS alters these
interactions. Such understanding will provide important insights into the relationship between individual neurons
subthreshold membrane voltage dynamics (a measure of synaptic inputs) and spiking outputs, and provide direct
experimental evidence linking pathological LFP oscillations with single neuron biophysics, and how DBS affects
these relationships. We believe that such insights will help establish oscillation based biomarkers for brain
disorders, and facilitate future DBS designs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10093172
- **Project number:** 5R01NS115797-02
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS)
- **Principal Investigator:** Xue Han
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $382,313
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10093172

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10093172, Voltage imaging analysis of striatal network dynamics related to movement, Parkinson's disease and deep brain stimulation (5R01NS115797-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10093172. Licensed CC0.

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