Data from: Therapeutic frequency profile of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation is shaped by antidromic spike failure

The therapeutic mechanisms of subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) appear to depend on antidromic activation of cortex via the hyperdirect pathway. However, hyperdirect pathway neurons are unable to follow high stimulation frequencies reliably, and the rate of spike failure appears to correlate with symptom relief as a function of stimulation frequency. We conducted in vivo measurements of evoked cortical activity and developed a computational model of cortical activation from STN DBS with stochastic antidromic spike failure to determine how spike failure affects the desynchronization of pathophysiological oscillatory activity in cortex. High frequency STN DBS desynchronized pathological oscillations via the masking of intrinsic spiking, analogous to the informational lesion theory. Antidromic spike failure shaped the parabolic relationship between stimulation frequency and desynchronization, with maximum desynchronization at ~130 Hz. These findings reveal that antidromic spike failure plays a critical role in mediating the dependency of symptom relief on stimulation frequency.