Modulation of temporal prediction by STN-DBS in Parkinson’s disease: Links between behavior and cortical oscillations

BACKGROUND Accurate temporal prediction is essential for adaptive behavior and relies on coordinated neural activity within cortico-basal ganglia circuits. Parkinson’s disease (PD), with the main hallmark of dopaminergic depletion and abnormal neural synchrony, impairs this ability. Deep brain stimulation deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a widely used treatment for reducing motor symptoms in PD, but its effects on temporal prediction remain not fully understood.

This study aimed to investigate how STN-DBS influences temporal prediction performance and its underlying oscillatory dynamics in PD patients, with a particular focus on beta-band power and delta-band inter-trial phase consistency (ITPC).

13 PD patients (5 female, age: 64 ± 5.7 years; disease duration: 11.8 ± 1.8 years) with STN-DBS performed a temporal prediction task with (DBS ON) and without (DBS OFF) stimulation, while 64-channel-electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. 20 age-matched healthy controls completed the same task. Behavioral performance was assessed using psychometric function slopes. Time-frequency analyses and source-level EEG measures examined beta power and delta ITPC.

PD patients showed impaired temporal prediction performance compared to controls, reflected in shallower psychometric slopes. DBS significantly improved performance to a level comparable to those of controls. EEG revealed reduced beta suppression in PD patients during DBS OFF, while beta suppression in DBS ON was comparable to controls. Both DBS OFF and ON exhibited reduced delta ITPC compared to controls. In DBS ON, source-level delta ITPC was positively correlated with temporal prediction accuracy.

STN-DBS improves temporal prediction performance in PD, likely through modulation of beta and delta oscillatory activity. While beta power suppression is partially restored, deficits in delta phase alignment persist, suggesting frequency-specific DBS effects on temporal prediction processes. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.