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Subthalamic nucleus stimulation affects incentive salience attribution in Parkinson's disease
Author(s) -
Serranová Tereza,
Jech Robert,
Dušek Petr,
Sieger Tomáš,
Růžička Filip,
Urgošík Dušan,
Růžička Evžen
Publication year - 2011
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.23880
Subject(s) - psychology , deep brain stimulation , subthalamic nucleus , arousal , incentive salience , audiology , stimulation , valence (chemistry) , parkinson's disease , international affective picture system , salience (neuroscience) , mood , neuroscience , developmental psychology , disease , dopamine , psychiatry , medicine , physics , quantum mechanics
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) can induce nonmotor side effects such as behavioral and mood disturbances or body weight gain in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. We hypothesized that some of these problems could be related to an altered attribution of incentive salience (ie, emotional relevance) to rewarding and aversive stimuli. Twenty PD patients (all men; mean age ± SD, 58.3 ± 6 years) in bilateral STN DBS switched ON and OFF conditions and 18 matched controls rated pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System according to emotional valence (unpleasantness/pleasantness) and arousal on 2 independent visual scales ranging from 1 to 9. Eighty‐four pictures depicting primary rewarding (erotica and food) and aversive fearful (victims and threat) and neutral stimuli were selected for this study. In the STN DBS ON condition, the PD patients attributed lower valence scores to the aversive pictures compared with the OFF condition ( P < .01) and compared with controls ( P < .01). The difference between the OFF condition and controls was less pronounced ( P < .05). Furthermore, postoperative weight gain correlated with arousal ratings from the food pictures in the STN DBS ON condition ( P < .05 compensated for OFF condition). Our results suggest that STN DBS increases activation of the aversive motivational system so that more relevance is attributed to aversive fearful stimuli. In addition, STN DBS–related sensitivity to food reward stimuli cues might drive DBS‐treated patients to higher food intake and subsequent weight gain. © 2011 Movement Disorder Society