Iowa [US], In a new study, researchers at the University of Iowa linked the BRE region to how humans adjust their thoughts and attention when distracted. The link is important because it provides information about the cognitive and behavioral adverse effects of treatments used to treat people with Parkinson's. The study, "The human subthalamic nucleus transiently inhibits active attention processes," was published online March 4 in the journal Brain The Subthalamic Nucleus. There is a pea-sized brain area that controls our activities. These movements have been disrupted in Parkinson's patients: Researchers believe that the subthalamic nucleus, which normally acts as a brake on sudden movements, has too much of an effect.Researchers believe that overactive brakes contribute to the tremors and other motor deficits of the disease. In recent years, physicians have treated Parkinson's patients with deep-Brain stimulation, an electrode implanted in the subthalamic nucleus that rhythmically generates electrical signals, thereby loosening the brain region's braking. Freeing the movement. The deep brain stimulation system is like a pacemaker for the heart; Once implanted, it continues to move. "Frankly, this technology is truly miraculous," says Jan Wessel, an associate professor in the departments of psychology and brain sciences and neurology at Iowa." "People come in with Parkinson's, surgeons turn electrodes on, and their tremors go away. Suddenly they can keep their hands steady and go play golf. It's one of those blockbuster treatments where, when you see it working it really gives you confidence in what the neuroscience community is doing. Yet some patients treated with deep brain stimulation suffer from an inability to concentrate and are beset by impulsive thoughts, sometimes leading to risky behaviors such as gambling and substance abuse. Researchers began to wonder: The subthalamic nucleus' role in movement also meant that this was the same brain area that dealt with thoughts and impulse control.Wessel decided to find out so his team designed an experiment to assess the attention of more than a dozen Parkinson's patients when activated by either deep bra stimulation treatment. Inactive. Wearing skull caps to track their brain waves, participants were instructed to focus their attention on a computer screen while brain waves in their visual cortex were being monitored. Approximately one out of five times, in random order, the participant heard a chirping sound, which was intended to divert their visual attention from the chirping sound to the newly introduced auditory distraction. In a 2021 study, Wessel's group established that brain waves in participants' visual cortex decreased when they heard a chirp, meaning their attention was distracted by the sound.By alternating the instances when there was chirping or sound, the researchers could see when attention was distracted, and when the focus of visual attention was maintained. The team turned their attention to Parkinson's groups for this study. When deep brain stimulation was passive and chirping was heard, Parkinson's patients shifted their attention from visual to auditory systems – just as the control group did in a previous study, but when the chirping was heard the participants with Parkinson's Those participants who were introduced to D with active brain stimulation did not shift their visual attention. “We found that they could no longer break or suppress the focus of their attention in the same way,” says Wessel, the study's corresponding author. “An unexpected sound occurs and they are still fully focused on their visual system. They have not taken their attention away from the scene.The distinction confirms the role of the subthalamic nucleus in how the brain and body communicate not only with movement--as was previously known--but also with thoughts and attention. "Until now, it was very unclear what Parkinson's disease Why did people with Parkinson's disease have problems with thoughts, such as why they performed poorly on attention tests," Vesey says. "Our study explains why: While removing the inhibitory effect of the subthalamic nucleus on the motor system does not treat Parkinson's. While removing its inhibitory effects from nonmotor systems (such as thought or attention) may have adverse effects, Wessel believes that deep brain stimulation should continue to be used for Parkinson's patients. “There may be different areas of the subthalamic nucleus that inhibit the attentional system,” he says, citing its apparent benefits for aiding control functions. Doing basic research to find out how we can tune it to get the full benefits to the motor system without any possible side effects."