Huntington's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Huntington's Disease, including details on genetics, causes, symptoms, treatment.

Motor and cognitive improvement by deep brain stimulation in a transgenic rat model of Huntington's disease.

Temel Y, Cao C, Vlamings R, Blokland A, Ozen H, Steinbusch HW, Michelsen KA, von Hörsten S, Schmitz C, Visser-Vandewalle V

Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Division of Cellular Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands. y.temel@np.unimaas.nl

Altered activity of the globus pallidus externus (GPe) is responsible for at least part of the cognitive and motor symptoms of Huntington's disease (HD). In this study, we tested the hypothesis that bilateral globus pallidus (GP; equivalent of GPe in primates) deep brain stimulation (DBS) improves cognitive and motor symptoms in the first transgenic rat model of HD (tgHD rats). GP DBS with clinically relevant stimulation parameters resulted in a significant improvement of cognitive dysfunction and reduced the number of choreiform movements. This data indicate that GPe DBS can be used to treat cognitive and motor dysfunction in HD.

Published 28 August 2006 in Neurosci Lett, 406(1): 138-41.
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