Dopamine and the biology of creativity: lessons from Parkinson's disease.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by reduced flexibility, conceptualization, and visuo-spatial abilities. Although these are essential to creativity, case studies show emergence of creativity during PD. Knowledge about the role of dopamine in creativity so far only stems from a few case reports.

Improvement in Parkinson disease by subthalamic nucleus stimulation based on electrode placement: effects of reimplantation.

Background: The misplacement of electrodes is a possible explanation for suboptimal response to bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) stimulation in patients with Parkinson disease.

Objective: To evaluate whether reimplantation of electrodes in the STN can produce improvement in patients with poor results from surgery and with suspected electrode misplacement based on imaging findings.

Design: Prospective follow-up study.

Effects of levodopa and subthalamic nucleus stimulation on cognitive and affective functioning in Parkinson's disease.

In Parkinson's disease (PD), levodopa and subthalamic nucleus (STN) stimulation lead to major improvement in motor symptoms. Effects of both treatments on cognition and affective status are less well understood. Motor, cognitive, and affective symptoms may relate to the dysfunctioning of parallel cortico-striatal loops.

Therapeutic electrical stimulation of the central nervous system.

The electrical effects on the nervous system have been known for long. The excitatory effect has been used for diagnostic purposes or even for therapeutic applications, like in pain using low-frequency stimulation of the spinal cord or of the thalamus. The discovery that High-Frequency Stimulation (HFS) mimics the effect of lesioning has opened a new field of therapeutic application of electrical stimulation in all places where lesion of neuronal structures, such as nuclei of the basal ganglia, had proven some therapeutic efficiency.

Five-year follow-up of bilateral stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in advanced Parkinson's disease.

Background: Although the short-term benefits of bilateral stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease have been well documented, the long-term outcomes of the procedure are unknown.

Methods: We conducted a five-year prospective study of the first 49 consecutive patients whom we treated with bilateral stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus. Patients were assessed at one, three, and five years with levodopa (on medication) and without levodopa (off medication), with use of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale.