Neural Closed Loop Deep Brain Stimulation for Freezing of Gait

Freezing of gait (FOG), a devastating symptom of Parkinson9s disease (PD), can be refractory to current treatments such as medication and open-loop deep brain stimulation (olDBS). Recent evidence suggests that closed-loop DBS (clDBS), using beta local field potential power from the subthalamic nucleus (STN) as the control variable, can improve tremor and bradykinesia; however, no study has investigated the use of clDBS for the treatment of FOG. In this study, we provide preliminary evidence that clDBS was superior to olDBS in reducing percent time freezing and in reducing freezing behavior (gait arrhythmicity) in two people with PD and FOG, with less total energy delivered. These findings warrant further investigation into the use of clDBS to treat FOG while also minimizing the total energy delivered to maintain a therapeutic effect.