Distinct phenotypes of stimulation-induced dysarthria represent different cortical networks in STN-DBS.

Background: Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus is an effective treatment of Parkinson's disease, yet it is often associated with a general deterioration of speech intelligibility. Clustering the phenotypes of dysarthria has been proposed as a strategy to tackle these stimulation-induced speech problems.

Methods: In this study, we examine a cohort of 24 patients to test the real-life application of the proposed clustering and attempt to attribute the clusters to specific brain networks with two different approaches of connectivity analysis.