J S Brittain

Publications (7)17.69 Total impact

• Conference Proceeding: Demand driven deep brain stimulation: Regimes and autoregressive hidden Markov implementation

  J.-S. Brittain, P. Probert-Smith, T.Z. Aziz
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  ABSTRACT: Deep brain stimulation is an increasingly prevalent surgical option in the treatment of a multitude of neurological conditions, most notably Parkinson's disease. The development of a neurofeedback device is driven primarily by stimulator habituation, surgical risk factors, the cost of battery replacement, and reported neuropsychiatric side-effects under prolonged chronic administration. Here we present two distinct regimes for stimulation delivery in chronic and acute symptomatic conditions, presented in the context of Parkinsonian bradykinesias and tremor. Implementation strategies are discussed with a focus on vector-autoregressive hidden Markov models for tremor prediction. Detection of simple motor actions versus tremor are compared in a preliminary performance analysis.
  Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE; 10/2010
• Conference Proceeding: Application of a null-beamformer to source localisation in MEG data of deep brain stimulation

  H.R. Mohseni, M.L. Kringelbach, P.P. Smith, A.L. Green, C.E. Parsons, K.S. Young, J.-S. Brittain, J.A. Hyam, P.M. Schweder, J.F. Stein, T.Z. Aziz
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  ABSTRACT: In this paper, we present an analysis of magnetoencephalography (MEG) signals from a patient with whole-body chronic pain in order to investigate changes in neural activity induced by DBS. The patient is one of the few cases treated using DBS of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Using MEG to reconstruct the neural activity of interest is challenging because of interference to the signal from the DBS device. We demonstrate that a null-beamformer can be used to localise neural activity despite artefacts caused by the presence of DBS electrodes and stimulus pulses. We subsequently verified the accuracy of our source localisation by correlating the predicted DBS electrode positions with their actual positions, previously identified using anatomical imaging. We also demonstrated increased activity in pain-related regions including the pre-supplementary motor area, brainstem periaqueductal gray and medial prefrontal areas when the patient was in pain compared to when the patient experienced pain relief.
  Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE; 10/2010
• Article: Local field potentials reveal a distinctive neural signature of cluster headache in the hypothalamus.

  J-S Brittain, A L Green, N Jenkinson, N J Ray, P Holland, J F Stein, T Z Aziz, P Davies
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  ABSTRACT: Cluster headache (CH) is a debilitating neurovascular condition characterized by severe unilateral periorbital head pain. Deep brain stimulation of the posterior hypothalamus has shown potential in alleviating CH in its most severe, chronic form. During surgical implantation of stimulating macroelectrodes for cluster head pain, one of our patients suffered a CH attack. During the attack local field potentials displayed a significant increase in power of approximately 20 Hz. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first recorded account of neuronal activity observed during a cluster attack. Our results both support and extend the current literature, which has long implicated hypothalamic activation as key to CH generation, predominantly through indirect haemodynamic neuroimaging techniques. Our findings reveal a potential locus in CH neurogenesis and a potential rationale for efficacious stimulator titration.
  Cephalalgia 05/2009; 29(11):1165-73. · 3.43 Impact Factor
• Article: Neural signatures in patients with neuropathic pain.

  A L Green, S Wang, J F Stein, E A C Pereira, M L Kringelbach, X Liu, J-S Brittain, T Z Aziz
  Neurology 03/2009; 72(6):569-71. · 8.31 Impact Factor
• Source

  Available from: Ned Jenkinson

  Article: Abnormal thalamocortical dynamics may be altered by deep brain stimulation: using magnetoencephalography to study phantom limb pain.

  N J Ray, N Jenkinson, M L Kringelbach, P C Hansen, E A Pereira, J S Brittain, P Holland, I E Holliday, S Owen, J Stein, T Aziz
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  ABSTRACT: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is used to alleviate chronic pain. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study the mechanisms of DBS for pain is difficult because of the artefact caused by the stimulator. We were able to record activity over the occipital lobe of a patient using DBS for phantom limb pain during presentation of a visual stimulus. This demonstrates that MEG can be used to study patients undergoing DBS provided control stimuli are used to check the reliability of the data. We then asked the patient to rate his pain during and off DBS. Correlations were found between these ratings and power in theta (6-9) and beta bands (12-30). Further, there was a tendency for frequencies under 25 Hz to correlate with each other after a period off stimulation compared with immediately after DBS. The results are interpreted as reflecting abnormal thalamocortical dynamics, previously implicated in painful syndromes.
  Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 12/2008; 16(1):32-6. · 1.25 Impact Factor
• Article: Local field potential beta activity in the subthalamic nucleus of patients with Parkinson's disease is associated with improvements in bradykinesia after dopamine and deep brain stimulation.

  N J Ray, N Jenkinson, S Wang, P Holland, J S Brittain, C Joint, J F Stein, T Aziz
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  ABSTRACT: Parkinson's disease is treated pharmacologically with dopamine replacement medication and, more recently, by stimulating basal-ganglia nuclei such as the subthalamic nucleus (STN). Depth recordings after this procedure have revealed excessive activity at frequencies between 8 and 35 Hz (Brown et al., 2001; Kuhn et al., 2004; Priori et al., 2004) that are reduced by dopamine therapy in tandem with improvements in bradykinesia/rigidity, but not tremor (Kuhn et al., 2006). It has also been shown that improvements in motor symptoms after dopamine correlate with single unit activity in the beta range (Weinberger et al., 2006). We recorded local field potentials (LFPs) from the subthalamic nucleus of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) after surgery to implant deep brain stimulating electrodes while they were on and off dopaminergic medication. As well as replicating Kuhn et al., using the same patients we were able to extend Weinberger et al. to show that LFP beta oscillatory activity correlated with the degree of improvement in bradykinesia/rigidity, but not tremor, after dopamine medication. We also found that the power of beta oscillatory activity uniquely predicted improvements in bradykinesia/rigidity, but again not tremor, after stimulation of the STN in a regression analysis. However improvements after STN stimulation related inversely to beta power, possibly reflecting the accuracy of the electrode placement and/or the limits of STN stimulation in patients with the greatest levels of beta oscillatory activity.
  Experimental Neurology 06/2008; 213(1):108-13. · 4.70 Impact Factor
• Article: Abnormal thalamocortical dynamics may be altered by deep brain stimulation: Using magnetoencephalography to study phantom limb pain

  N.J. Ray, N. Jenkinson, M.L. Kringelbach, P.C. Hansen, E.A. Pereira, J.S. Brittain, P. Holland, I.E. Holliday, S. Owen, J. Stein, T. Aziz
  [show abstract] [hide abstract]
  ABSTRACT: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is used to alleviate chronic pain. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study the mechanisms of DBS for pain is difficult because of the artefact caused by the stimulator. We were able to record activity over the occipital lobe of a patient using DBS for phantom limb pain during presentation of a visual stimulus. This demonstrates that MEG can be used to study patients undergoing DBS provided control stimuli are used to check the reliability of the data. We then asked the patient to rate his pain during and off DBS. Correlations were found between these ratings and power in theta (6–9) and beta bands (12–30). Further, there was a tendency for frequencies under 25 Hz to correlate with each other after a period off stimulation compared with immediately after DBS. The results are interpreted as reflecting abnormal thalamocortical dynamics, previously implicated in painful syndromes.
  Journal of Clinical Neuroscience.