Deep brain stimulation: current challenges and future directions
By A. Lozano, Nir Lipsman, Hagai Bergman, Peter Brown, S. Chabardès, J. Chang, K. Matthews, Cameron C. McIntyre, T. Schlaepfer, M. Schulder and 3 more. Nature Reviews Neurology, 2019
1,222 citations recorded by the source corpus.
The clinical use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) is among the most important advances in the clinical neurosciences in the past two decades. As a surgical tool, DBS can directly measure pathological brain activity and can deliver adjustable stimulation for therapeutic effect in neurological and psychiatric disorders correlated with dysfunctional circuitry. The development of DBS has opened new opportunities to access and interrogate malfunctioning brain circuits and to test the therapeutic potential of regulating the output of these circuits in a broad range of disorders. Despite the success and rapid adoption of DBS, crucial questions remain, including which brain areas should be targeted and in which patients. This Review considers how DBS has facilitated advances in our understanding of how circuit malfunction can lead to brain disorders and outlines the key unmet challenges and future directions in the DBS field. Determining the next steps in DBS science will help to define the future role of this technology in the development of novel therapeutics for the most challenging disorders affecting the human brain.Over the past 20 years, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has transformed the treatment of movement disorders. Now, new therapeutic possibilities for DBS are emerging for other neurological and psychiatric disorders. This Review considers the clinical and scientific advances facilitated by DBS and the crucial questions, challenges and opportunities that face this technology.Key pointsDeep brain stimulation (DBS) is opening new therapeutic possibilities for neurological and psychiatric disorders.DBS is enabling neuroscientists to obtain direct measures of cellular activity and to probe the function of neural circuits.The delivery of DBS at precise locations and the wide range of stimulation parameters available enable unprecedented temporal and spatial control of brain circuits.The mechanisms of action of DBS at the cell, molecular and systems level are poorly understood and much work remains to be done.The ethical issues presented by the application of DBS in new patient populations and for new indications require careful consideration.
Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Neurology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3123bd1faecd0fadd88995885df511cf55d03685
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Citations in the corpus
- The blood–brain barrier: Structure, regulation and drug delivery (2023, background): “141,142 146 But the potential risks from brain exposure and damage of these invasive strategies limited their applications for long-term use.”
- Disentangling Shared and Private Neural Dynamics with SPIRE: A Latent Modeling Framework for Deep Brain Stimulation (2025, unknown): “…2015; Jinnah & Hess, 2006; Obeso et al., 2008; Zhuang et al., 2004), and while DBS of targets such as globus pallidus internus (GPi) and subthalamic nucleus (STN) is clinically effective (Ben-abid, 2003; Lozano et al., 2019; Larsh et al., 2021) its network-level mechanisms remain poorly understood.”
- The Neurostimulationist will see you now: prescribing direct electrical stimulation therapies for the human brain in epilepsy and beyond (2024, background): “…et al., 2005; Bronstein et al., 2011; Rolston et al., 2011; Bourne et al., 2012; Lozano and Lipsman, 2013; Revell, 2015; Herrington et al., 2016; Lozano et al., 2019; Goodman et al., 2020; Nair et al., 2020; Sheth et al., 2021; Scangos et al., 2021a; Shlobin et al., 2022; Vissani et al., 2023),…”
- An intracranial dissection of human escape circuits (2024, unknown): “However, due to the limited sample size in our electrical stimulation experiments, the conclusions we draw may require additional evidence.”
- The Easy and Versatile Neural Recording Platform (T-REX): Design and Development Study (2023, background): “Some examples are patients with medication-resistant epilepsy undergoing presurgical monitoring for resection surgery [5] or patients qualified for deep brain stimulation [6].”
- T-Rex: sTandalone Recorder of EXperiments; An easy and versatile neural recording platform (2022, methodology): “For example in patients with medication-resistant epilepsy undergoing presurgical monitoring for resection surgery ([ 5]) or patients qualified for deep brain stimulation ([6]).”
- Temporal Interference Stimulation Enhances Neural Regeneration (2026, unknown): “However, the invasiveness of conventional DBS techniques bears the risk of serious surgical complications, limiting its therapeutic potential [ 40 ].”