Summary: Researchers report low frequency deep brain stimulation can help to improve cognitive function in people with Parkinson’s disease.

Source: University of Iowa Health Care.

A multidisciplinary neuroscience study using rare, intraoperative brain recordings suggests that low frequency stimulation of a deep brain region may be able to improve cognitive function in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The study findings, published Nov. 28 online in the journal Brain, also hint at the broader potential of brain stimulation for treating other cognitive diseases.

The new work by neurologists and neurosurgeons with the Iowa Neuroscience Institute at the University of Iowa provides the first direct evidence of a connection in the human brain between the thinking region of the brain (the frontal cortex) and a deeper structure called the subthalamic nucleus (STN) that is involved in controlling movement. The study also shows…