# The effects of parkinsonism and deep brain stimulation on basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuitry during sleep-wake behavior

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2021 · $608,494

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Over 75% of people with Parkinson's disease (PD) have significant sleep-wake disturbances that are major
contributors to decreased quality of life that can be more disabling and resistant to treatment than the motor
symptoms of PD. Currently, the mechanisms contributing to disordered sleep in people with PD are poorly
understood and there is a critical need for therapeutic inventions to improve sleep quality. Studies suggest that
the basal ganglia thalamo-cortical (BGTC) circuit plays an important role in maintaining normal sleep-wake
behavior, and the observation that MPTP non-human primate models of PD with selective basal ganglia
dopaminergic lesions have extensive sleep alterations further implicates the BGTC circuitry in playing an
important mechanistic role in sleep physiology. This project will provide new insight into the pathophysiology of
sleep-wake disturbances in PD by characterizing the changes in sleep-related neuronal activity and physiological
interactions that occur between subcortical and cortical structures in the BGTC circuit during progressively more
severe parkinsonian states. It will compare how deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the subthalamic nucleus and
pallidum modifies these interactions to influence sleep-wake behavior, providing data with immediate
translational value by identifying whether DBS in one target is more effective than another in normalizing sleep-
related neuronal activity and improving sleep-wake behavior. Furthermore, knowledge about how changes in
neuronal activity across the BGTC correlates with altered sleep from normal, parkinsonian, and
parkinsonian+DBS conditions will provide the basis to develop more effective stimulation strategies that utilize
target-specific physiological biomarkers and closed-loop control paradigms tailored to individual patient's sleep
disturbances.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10145091
- **Project number:** 5R01NS110613-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** LUKE Aaron JOHNSON
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $608,494
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10145091

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10145091, The effects of parkinsonism and deep brain stimulation on basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuitry during sleep-wake behavior (5R01NS110613-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10145091. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*