Parkinson's disease : electrical stimulation therapies with a focus on deep brain stimulation

Abstract

This thesis aims to provide a comprehensive overview of deep brain stimulation DBS as a treatment for Parkinson's disease. The introduction includes common symptoms, risk factors, the underlying neuropathology and treatment options. The next section focuses on the basal ganglia, a neural system located deep within the brain that is relevant for motor functions and highly associated with Parkinson's disease. To gain a deeper understanding, the subsequent chapter examines the fundamental building blocks of these systems: neurons. Apart from anatomical and physiological aspects, also neuron models used in computational simulation are introduced. The thesis also compares DBS with non-invasive brain stimulation techniques and explores the technical aspects of DBS, introducing the systems' components, and discusses their properties and resulting effects. Furthermore, it examines the influence of different stimulation parameters and introduces newer, emerging techniques. These aspects are again compared to non-invasive brain stimulation methods.Finally, an overview of computational models used in DBS research is given, introducing different modeling approaches and presenting available software solutions