Dopamine and the dynamics of subthalamic and leg muscle activities in parkinsonian stepping
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Freezing of gait (FOG) is a devastating symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD) often resulting in disabling falls and loss of independence. It affects half of patients, yet current therapeutic strategies are insufficient, and the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study investigated beta oscillation dynamics in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) during different movement states (sitting, standing and stepping), while examining the effects of levodopa. Specifically, it aimed to identify pathological activity during stepping by analysing the relationship between the STN and leg muscles and how this is modulated by levodopa. Local field potentials (LFPs) in the STN and leg muscle activity measured as EMG of the gastrocnemius and peroneus longus were recorded in 14 PD patients during sitting, standing and stepping, ON and OFF levodopa. Levodopa reduced stepping frequency variability, implying improved stepping rhythmicity. Low-beta (12-20 Hz) and high-beta (21-35 Hz) were differentially modulated by stepping movements and levodopa, with reduced high-beta and increased low-beta during stepping compared with standing and sitting. In contrast, levodopa reduced low-beta but increased high-beta activity, highlighting a potential physiological function of high-beta in the STN. Additionally, step-phase-specific effects of levodopa were observed including reduced broad-beta band activity in the STN and leg muscles during the late stance and lift-off phase of the contralateral leg when ON medication. Furthermore, STN beta bursts were associated with increased muscle activation at movement initiation, potentially reducing the ability to move freely. This study observed different effects of movement status (sitting versus stepping versus standing) on the average amplitude of low- versus high-beta frequency bands, suggesting they may serve distinct functional roles. Furthermore, there is a step-phase-specific effect of levodopa on STN LFPs, EMGs and intermuscular coherence during stepping. These findings offer insight for developing phase-specific stimulation strategies targeting STN beta oscillations during gait.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".