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Pallidal deep brain stimulation influences both reflexive and voluntary saccades in Huntington's disease
Author(s) -
Fawcett Adrian P.,
Moro Elena,
Lang Anthony E.,
Lozano Andres M.,
Hutchison William D.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.20356
Subject(s) - saccade , deep brain stimulation , psychology , neuroscience , stimulation , eye movement , latency (audio) , physical medicine and rehabilitation , audiology , medicine , parkinson's disease , disease , computer science , telecommunications
Abstract Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the globus pallidus internus (GPi) is being evaluated as a potential new therapy for patients with Huntington's disease (HD). In addition to skeletal movement disorders, HD patients have difficulty initiating voluntary saccades and have difficulty in suppressing rapid saccades toward newly appearing stimuli. We measured several saccade parameters in an HD patient who had marked improvement of clinical symptoms with bilateral GPi DBS to determine whether oculomotor performance improved in parallel with clinical scores. Oculomotor performance was assessed using three testing paradigms: pro‐saccades, anti‐saccades, and memory‐guided saccades. The data from the HD patient was also compared to that of two healthy controls. Pallidal DBS decreased pro‐saccade latency, total movement time, and the number of correctly executed trials, as well as increasing saccade gain. Memory–saccade performance was negatively affected with stimulation: saccade gain decreased, latency increased, and the patient's ability to suppress unwanted saccades decreased with stimulation. Our data demonstrate a task‐specific improvement of oculomotor deficits in this HD patient with pallidal DBS, supporting a role of GPi in oculomotor control. © 2004 Movement Disorder Society