Deep brain stimulation of the central thalamus restores arousal and motivation in a zolpidem-responsive patient with akinetic mutism after severe brain injury.

ABSTRACT: After severe brain injury, zolpidem is known to cause spectacular, often short-lived, restorations of brain functions in a small subgroup of patients. Previously, we showed that these zolpidem-induced neurological recoveries can be paralleled by significant changes in functional connectivity throughout the brain. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical intervention known to modulate functional connectivity in a wide variety of neurological disorders. In this study, we used DBS to restore arousal and motivation in a zolpidem-responsive patient with severe brain injury and a concomitant disorder of diminished motivation, more than 10 years after surviving hypoxic ischemia. We found that DBS of the central thalamus, targeted at the centromedian-parafascicular complex, immediately rest

SUBMITTER: Arnts H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10844373 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature