Parkinson’s Disease — What’s the FUS?

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease causes progressive motor and cognitive dysfunction. Medications aim to replace deficient dopamine in the brain and reduce the characteristic slowness, stiffness, and tremor. However, as the disorder progresses, medications provide shorter duration of benefit and produce involuntary dyskinetic movements. Surgical approaches to Parkinson’s disease that can provide additional benefit at these later stages include deep-brain stimulation and ablative lesions in the nuclei of the basal ganglia.^1,2 These procedures are considered to produce clinical benefit by modulation of pathologic oscillatory signals.³ Deep-brain stimulation for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease has predominantly targeted the subthalamic nucleus or the internal segment . . .