Deep Brain Stimulation of the Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus (PPN) Influences Visual Contrast Sensitivity in Human Observers

The parapontine nucleus of the thalamus (PPN) is a neuromodulatory midbrain structure with widespread connectivity to cortical and subcortical motor structures, as well as the spinal cord. The PPN also projects to the thalamus, including visual relay nuclei like the LGN and the pulvinar. Moreover, t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 11; no. 5; p. e0155206
Main Authors: Strumpf, Hendrik, Noesselt, Toemme, Schoenfeld, Mircea Ariel, Voges, Jürgen, Panther, Patricia, Kaufmann, Joern, Heinze, Hans-Jochen, Hopf, Jens-Max
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 11.05.2016
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Aged
Biology and Life Sciences
Brain
Brain stimulation
Colliculus
Contrast Sensitivity
Deep brain stimulation
Deep Brain Stimulation - methods
Disease control
Female
Frequency dependence
Gait
Humans
Influence
Localization
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Mesencephalon
Middle Aged
Motor skills
Motor task performance
Movement disorders
Nerve Net - pathology
Nerve Net - physiopathology
Neural networks
Neurobiology
Neurodegenerative diseases
Neurology
Neuromodulation
Neurons
Neurosciences
Neurosurgery
Noise
Nuclei
Orientation
Orientation behavior
Parameter estimation
Parkinson Disease - pathology
Parkinson Disease - physiopathology
Parkinson Disease - therapy
Parkinson's disease
Patients
Pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus
Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus - pathology
Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus - physiopathology
Physiological aspects
Postural Balance
Posture
Pulvinar
Social Sciences
Spinal cord
Stimulation
Superior Colliculi - pathology
Superior Colliculi - physiopathology
Superior colliculus
Tegmental nucleus
Tegmentum
Thalamus
Thalamus - pathology
Thalamus - physiopathology
Thresholds
Visual discrimination
Visual observation
Visual pathways
Visual perception
Germany
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The parapontine nucleus of the thalamus (PPN) is a neuromodulatory midbrain structure with widespread connectivity to cortical and subcortical motor structures, as well as the spinal cord. The PPN also projects to the thalamus, including visual relay nuclei like the LGN and the pulvinar. Moreover, there is intense connectivity with sensory structures of the tegmentum in particular with the superior colliculus (SC). Given the existence and abundance of projections to visual sensory structures, it is likely that activity in the PPN has some modulatory influence on visual sensory selection. Here we address this possibility by measuring the visual discrimination performance (luminance contrast thresholds) in a group of patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) treated with deep-brain stimulation (DBS) of the PPN to control gait and postural motor deficits. In each patient we measured the luminance-contrast threshold of being able to discriminate an orientation-target (Gabor-grating) as a function of stimulation frequency (high 60Hz, low 8/10, no stimulation). Thresholds were determined using a standard staircase-protocol that is based on parameter estimation by sequential testing (PEST). We observed that under low frequency stimulation thresholds increased relative to no and high frequency stimulation in five out of six patients, suggesting that DBS of the PPN has a frequency-dependent impact on visual selection processes at a rather elementary perceptual level.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Conceived and designed the experiments: HS TN MAS H-JH J-MH. Performed the experiments: HS JV. Analyzed the data: HS TN PP J-MH JK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JV PP H-JH JK. Wrote the paper: MAS TN J-MH.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0155206