A Personalized Brain Pacemaker for Parkinson’s

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the use of AI-powered adaptive deep brain stimulation to personalize treatment for Parkinson's disease patients. It highlights the case of Shawn Connolly, a skateboarder with Parkinson's, who participated in a study that found the individualized approach reduced the time he experienced his most bothersome symptoms by half.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Advertisement

1. What is the key innovation described in the article?

• The article describes an innovative approach to deep brain stimulation that uses AI-powered algorithms to personalize the electrical stimulation for each Parkinson's disease patient based on their individual symptoms and brain activity.
• This "adaptive deep brain stimulation" adjusts the level of stimulation in response to the patient's fluctuating symptoms, providing more stimulation during periods of stiffness and less during periods of involuntary movement.

2. What were the key findings of the study on this adaptive deep brain stimulation approach?

• The study found that the personalized, adaptive approach:
  • Cut in half the time patients experienced their most bothersome symptoms
  • Improved patients' perceived quality of life in areas like mobility, pain, and ability to do daily activities
  • Did not worsen, and in some cases improved, the "opposite" symptoms

3. What are the potential benefits of this personalized brain stimulation approach?

• It allows for more tailored, responsive treatment that adjusts to the patient's changing brain activity and symptoms over time
• It has the potential to provide better symptom management and quality of life for Parkinson's patients compared to conventional deep brain stimulation

4. What are some of the challenges or limitations mentioned with this approach?

• The algorithms require frequent adjustments as patients' Parkinson's progresses, their medications change, and their activities/routines evolve
• More research is still needed to make the approaches pragmatic and affordable for wider adoption

[02] Skateboarder with Parkinson's

1. How did Parkinson's disease impact the skateboarder, Shawn Connolly?

• Connolly was a 39-year-old daredevil skateboarder when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's 9 years ago
• He gradually began experiencing issues like his right hand cupping, balance and alignment problems, and fluctuations between rapid involuntary movements and periods of slowness/stiffness

2. Why did Connolly volunteer for the adaptive deep brain stimulation study?

• Connolly volunteered for the study partly because his late wife had urged him to try deep brain stimulation
• He wanted to explore this innovative approach to potentially improve his Parkinson's symptoms and quality of life

3. How did the personalized stimulation impact Connolly's experience?

• Connolly said he noticed the difference "instantly" - the individualized algorithm gave him longer stretches of feeling good and having energy/mobility
• It also improved his sleep, which can be disrupted in Parkinson's patients

4. How did Connolly balance participating in the study with his active lifestyle?

• Connolly took a break from the study midway to avoid the experimental switching of stimulation while running a summer skateboard camp for kids
• After the study, he plans to restart the personalized stimulation in the fall, after his skateboard camp