Can we integrate direct electrical brain stimulation with the 'human connectome?' YES. Will it improve outcomes? The 'magic 8 ball' would say it is likely. Coletta and colleagues have a nice new paper just out Brain showing some possible paths as we begin to walk this road.

New tool WMH-SynthSeg for joint segmentation of brain regions and white matter hyper-/hypo-intensities in high- and low-field MRI (including portable MRI, eg Swoop® Portable MR Imaging® System–Hyperfine, Inc). Freely available in FreeSurfer surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/fswiki/WMH-Syn… Preprint arxiv.org/abs/2312.05119 Led by Pablo Laso

🧠🎯Check out our new work on the somato-cogntive action network (SCAN) in #Parkinsonsdisease and its relationship with diverse neuromodulatory targets for PD. biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… A few key findings below!🧵

The brainstem’s red nucleus was evolutionarily upgraded to support goal-directed action (biorxiv.org/content/10.110…) ... Originally for quadrupedal locomotion, it is for action in humans. Functionally connected to the action (CON, SCAN) and salience networks, including ant.

Excited about this ‘review of all reviews’ about thalamic DBS for tremor by Clemens Neudorfer. In a new tour de force article, Clemens covers … 🧵1/N sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Introducing the Action-Mode Network – AMN. Better late than never! 17 years ago, we clumsily called this the Cingulo-opercular Network (CON) based on its anatomy (we weren’t exactly sure what it does). Now we’ve finally got the evidence to give it the functional name it deserves:

Happy our work on the synaptic mechanism of #ERNA won a DGKN posteraward 🏆 // We show that STN-#DBS is not simply a lesion but a spatially defined neuronal 🧠circuit intervention predictive of therapeutic efficacy⚡️ —> Publication and tweetorial🧶out soon. Stay tuned!

🎉Excited to share our latest research published Nature Communications. We study how STN-DBS engages the subcortical circuitry to produce therapeutic relief and how this recruitment is reflected in #ERNA. -> link to publication: rdcu.be/dEsWu -> thread 🧵👇

Brainstem connections that sustain wakefulness in human consciousness: science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… Thank you Science Translational Medicine for featuring this work on the cover! MGH Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery @MGH_RI MassGeneral News MGH Neurocritical Care MassGeneralNeuroscience MGH Neurology MGH Martinos Center Boston Children's Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Brigham and Women's Neurology

Modulating networks using DBS is an effective treatment for PD – but which circuits map to improvements in individual symptoms such as tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and axial? A 🧵 about our new paper out now in Nature Communications doi.org/10.1038/s41467… netstim

Al-Fatly et al. use lesion-network mapping to identify a network of brain regions involved in the pathophysiology of lesion-induced oculogyric crises, and show that the topography of the network overlaps with the expression of dopamine receptor type 2. tinyurl.com/5d4xek56

Grateful for the opportunity to present recent work (with Bassam Al-Fatly and Andrea Kühn) on subthalamic deep brain stimulation and the role of vascular white matter lesions at #OptoDBS2024. Great conference for clinicians and basic researches alike! Andreas Horn Christian Lüscher

A step further to understand MRI biomarkers interaction with DBS effects using connectomics by Mehmet S. Tuncer. Thanks Mehmet S. Tuncer for the mention 🙂

A dream collaboration! Findings are a game changer for understanding long-term sustained effects of SCC DBS #subcallosal jmac @DBS, and a platform for patient-relevant translation. Stay tuned for studies in humans. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Passaretti et al. explore motor compensation in early PD with unilateral motor signs but bilateral loss of DAergic terminals, and find that cortical associative plasticity can counter DAergic terminal loss and help maintain normal motor function. tinyurl.com/2k5rxb8z

Rest tremor is one of the cardinal motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and often responds to levodopa, but it does not seem to correlate with contralateral striatal dopamine deficit. ⁦Kalle Niemi⁩ found something surprising. ⁦Movement Disorders Journal⁩ …mentdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/md…

Congratulations for graduating your PhD with summa cum laude, Dr. Bassam Al-Fatly – very well deserved and it has been a real honor and pleasure to co-mentor you! Bassam’s works including three first-authorships in Brain and many new innovations: scholar.google.com/citations?user…

Petersen et al. show that assessing the brain circuitry affected by cerebrovascular white matter lesions improves the accuracy with which cognitive performance can be predicted in memory clinic patients compared to using lesion volume alone. tinyurl.com/3fs85658

1. #Tremor is early key feature of #Parkinson. Mysteriously, in various ways, tremor behaves differently than many other symptoms. We addressed this in recent paper in Mov Disord where we analysed clinical & neuroimaging data of large longitudinal Personalized Parkinson Project.

Marcelino and Al-Fatly et al. report literature-based lesion network mapping of dyskinetic cerebral palsy. Grey matter lesions are the most common MRI finding; the motor thalamus is a converging node of a wide functional network. Read at buff.ly/IyRv0E0.