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Opposite motor effects of pallidal stimulation in Parkinson's disease.

We studied the effects - on parkinsonian signs, on levodopa-induced
dyskinesias, and on levodopa response--of acute experimental high-frequency
stimulation of the internal pallidum (GPi) during off-drug and on-drug phases.

Thirteen quadripolar electrodes were evaluated in 8 patients with Parkinson's
disease (PD). Stimulation of the most ventral contacts, lying at the ventral
margin of or just below the GPi, led to pronounced improvement in rigidity and
a complete arrest of levodopa-induced dyskinesias.

The antiakinetic effect of levodopa was also blocked and the patients became
severely akinetic.

Stimulation of the most dorsal contacts, lying at the dorsal border of the GPi
or inside the external pallidum, usually led to moderate improvement of off-
drug akinesia and could also induce dyskinesias in some patients.

When using an intermediate contact for chronic stimulation, a good compromise
between these opposite effects was usually obtained, mimicking the effect of
pallidotomy.

We conclude that there are at least two different functional zones within the
globus pallidus, at the basis of a different pathophysiology of the cardinal
symptoms of PD.

The opposite effects may explain the variable results of pallidal surgery
reported in the literature and may also largely explain the paradox of PD
surgery.

A possible anatomical basis for these differential functional effects could be
a functional somatotopy within the GPi, with the segregation of the
pallidofugal fibers from the outer portion of the GPi, on one hand, forming
the ventral ansa lenticularis and from the inner portion of the GPi, on the
other hand, forming the dorsal lenticular fasciculus.

Ann Neurol 1998 Feb;43(2):180-192
Krack P, Pollak P, Limousin P, Hoffmann D, Benazzouz A, Le Bas JF, Koudsie A,
Benabid AL
Joseph Fourier University of Grenoble, France.
PMID: 9485059, UI: 98143593

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