UCSF

The prefrontal cortex is involved in various cognitive and affective functions. In neuropsychiatric conditions in which these functions are perturbed, such as Parkinson’s disease, prefrontal activity is not well characterized, in part due to methodological constraints that limit the ability to assess neural activity with high spatial and temporal resolution in humans. We utilized high resolution invasive neurophysiology in Parkinson’s patients undergoing awake, deep brain stimulation surgery to study the prefrontal cortex in Parkinson’s disease.

In Chapter 1, we introduce Parkinson’s disease and circuit models of disease informed by invasive recordings. Next, we discuss two studies in which we used invasive recordings to characterize prefrontal activity during movement inhibition and during emotional face processing. In Chapter 2, we introduce evidence of a prefrontal hyperdirect pathway in humans, and we characterize its topography. We found broad prefrontal innervation, with a preferential localization of fast fibers in the inferior frontal cortex. We also show inferior frontal-subthalamic co-modulation during movement inhibition, providing evidence for human hyperdirect involvement in stopping. Finally, we discuss an exploratory study of prefrontal activity during emotional face processing, where we found that Parkinson’s disease is characterized by prefrontal hyperactivity (Chapter 3). These two studies expand our understanding of the prefrontal mechanisms of cognitive and affective functions in Parkinson’s disease.