Connectomic Deep Brain Stimulation

Authors

Andreas Horn Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation Section, Department of Neurology, Charit� - Universit�tsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Andreas Horn is the Director of Deep Brain Stimulation Research within the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Director of Connectomic Neuromodulation Research at Massachusetts General Hospital. Furthermore, he leads the network stimulation laboratory in Boston and Berlin (www.netstim.org), where the main aims are to analyze and modulate brain networks that may improve treatment for various brain disorders. Central to the laboratory is the procedure of deep brain stimulation, in which fine electrodes are stereotactically implanted into deep structures of the brain to deliver weak electric pulses to specific structures. A second key concept is the one of the human connectome: A mathematical description of brain regions and their interconnections - in other words, a wiring-diagram of the human brain. By leveraging this concept, the laboratory investigates the impact of focal and multifocal brain stimulation techniques on distributed whole-brain networks. The laboratory leads development of an award-winning and widely used open source software (www.lead-dbs.org) that facilitates these kinds of studies. By developing this software alongside critical methodology, the laboratory was able to combine research on the fields of deep brain stimulation and the human connectome over the last ten years. In doing so, the laboratory has published central work toward establishing a novel and growing field of connectomic deep brain stimulation.