In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science

Gianluca Meloni

will defend his thesis

Space and Time Frequency-Dependent Interactions in Subthalamic Nucleus Local Field Potentials

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in the US, with a prevalence of 1% in the population over 60 years old and an annual economic impact estimated in 23 billion dollars in direct costs only. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is an effective surgical treatment for advanced PD in patients who developed a resistance to the pharmacological medication. DBS procedure allows the recording of electrophysiological signals known as Local Field Potentials (LFP) from deep brain structures such as Subthalamic Nucleus (STN). LFP represent the synchronized activity of a relatively large population of neurons and have been shown to correlate with many PD symptoms and to contribute with their use to the success of DBS practice. However, the pathophysiology of PD remains unclear.

In this work, we analyzed long-term STN LFP recordings in ten PD patients using classical as well as recently developed methods to investigate (i) the spatial distribution of spectral activity and nonlinear cross-frequency coupling in STN in medicated and unmedicated conditions, (ii) the pattern of spectral changes following medication intake and (iii) the correlation of features extracted from LFP with clinical scores and sensory data during resting state and movement execution.

Date: Friday, July 24, 2015
Time: 5:00 PM
Place: PGH 550
Advisor: Prof. Marc Garbey & Prof. Nuri F. Ince

Faculty, students, and the general public are invited.