Deep-brain stimulation of the human nucleus accumbens-medial septum enhances memory formation.

Deep-brain stimulation (DBS) is a potential novel treatment for memory dysfunction. Current attempts to enhance memory focus on stimulating human hippocampus or entorhinal cortex. However, an alternative strategy is to stimulate brain areas providing modulatory inputs to medial temporal memory-related structures, such as the nucleus accumbens (NAc), which is implicated in enhancing episodic memory encoding.

Design and Application of Automated Algorithms for Diagnosis and Treatment Optimization in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Neurodegenerative diseases represent a growing healthcare problem, mainly related to an aging population worldwide and thus their increasing prevalence. In particular, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are leading neurodegenerative diseases. To aid their diagnosis and optimize treatment, we have developed a classification algorithm for AD to manipulate magnetic resonance images (MRI) stored in a large database of patients, containing 1,200 images.

Surgical adverse events of deep brain stimulation in the subthalamic nucleus of patients with Parkinson's disease. The learning curve and the pitfalls.

Background: Several surgical adverse events (SAEs) have been associated with Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients, leading to certain confusion about the risk/benefit ratio of this technique, and giving rise to the need of more and more extensive control studies over longer periods. The aim of this article is to identify and quantify the factors associated with the most frequent AEs from STN DBS in PD-diagnosed patients.

Methods: The following variables were studied: aborted procedure, misplaced leads, intracranial haemorrhage, and seizures.

Evidence of subthalamic PGO-like waves during REM sleep in humans: a deep brain polysomnographic study.

Study Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine whether the subthalamic nucleus (STN) plays a role in the transmission of PGO-like waves during REM sleep in humans.

Design: Simultaneous recordings from deep brain electrodes to record local field potentials (LFPs), and standard polysomnography to ascertain sleep/wake states.

Setting: Main Hospital, department of clinical neurophysiology sleep laboratory.

Therapeutic extradural cortical stimulation for Parkinson's Disease: report of six cases and review of the literature.

Objectives: We report our experience and results with extradural cortical stimulation (ECS) in the surgical treatment of Parkinson's Disease (PD). Besides, we review the literature supporting the use of this technique.

Materials And Methods: Six patients with advanced PD and exclusion criteria for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) were included in our ECS protocol.