title: Structural and resting state functional connectivity of the subthalamic nucleus: identification of motor STN parts and the hyperdirect pathway.
abstract: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease often alleviates the motor symptoms, but causes cognitive and emotional side effects in a substantial number of cases. Identification of the motor part of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) as part of the presurgical workup could minimize these adverse effects. In this study, we assessed the STN's connectivity to motor, associative, and limbic brain areas, based on structural and functional connectivity analysis of volunteer data. For the structural connectivity, we used streamline counts derived from HARDI fiber tracking. The resulting tracks supported the existence of the so-called "hyperdirect" pathway in humans. Furthermore, we determined the connectivity of each STN voxel with the motor cortical areas. Functional connectivity was calculated based on functional MRI, as the correlation of the signal within a given brain voxel with the signal in the STN. Also, the signal per STN voxel was explained in terms of the correlation with motor or limbic brain seed ROI areas. Both right and left STN ROIs appeared to be structurally and functionally connected to brain areas that are part of the motor, associative, and limbic circuit. Furthermore, this study enabled us to assess the level of segregation of the STN motor part, which is relevant for the planning of STN DBS procedures.
authors: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. ellenbrunenberg@gmail.com
authors: Ellen J L
authors: EJ
authors: Brunenberg
authors: Pim
authors: P
authors: Moeskops
authors: Walter H
authors: WH
authors: Backes
authors: Claudio
authors: C
authors: Pollo
authors: Leila
authors: L
authors: Cammoun
authors: Anna
authors: A
authors: Vilanova
authors: Marcus L F
authors: ML
authors: Janssen
authors: Veerle E R M
authors: VE
authors: Visser-Vandewalle
authors: Bart M
authors: BM
authors: ter Haar Romeny
authors: Jean-Philippe
authors: JP
authors: Thiran
authors: Bram
authors: B
authors: Platel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology*; D020531:Subthalamic Nucleus / Q000502:physiology*