Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Electrical Impedance Properties of Deep Brain
Stimulation Electrodes during Long-Term In-Vivo
Stimulation in the Parkinson Model of the Rat
Kathrin Badstübner
1,*
, Thomas Kröger
2,*
, Eilhard Mix
1
, Ulrike Gimsa
3
,
Reiner Benecke
1
, and Jan Gimsa
2
1
Department of Neurology, University of Rostock,
Gehlsheimer Str. 20, 18147 Rostock, Germany
{kathrin.badstuebner,eilhard.mix,
reiner.benecke}@med.uni-rostock.de
2
Chair of Biophysics, Institute of Biology, University of Rostock,
Gertrudenstr. 11A, 18157 Rostock, Germany
{thomas.kroeger,jan.gimsa}@uni-rostock.de
3
Research Unit Behavioral Physiology, Leibniz -Institute for Farm Animal Biology,
Wilhelm-Stahl-Allee 2, 18196 Dummerstorf, Germany
gimsa@fbn-dummerstorf.de
Abstract.
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an invasive therapeutic option for
patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) but the mechanisms behind it are not yet
fully understood. Animal models are essential for basic DBS research, because
cell based
in-vitro
techniques are not complex enough. However, the geometry
difference between rodents and humans implicates transfer problems of the sti-
mulation conditions. For rodents, the development of miniaturized mobile sti-
mulators and adapted electrodes are desirable. We implanted uni- and bipolar
platinum/iridium electrodes in rats and were able to establish chronical instru-
mentation of freely moving rats (3 weeks). We measured the impedance of un-
ipolar electrodes
in-vivo
to characterize the influence of electrochemical
processes at the electrode-tissue interface. During the encapsulation process, the
real part of the electrode impedance at 10 kHz doubled after 12 days and in-
creased almost 10 times after 22 days. An outlook is given on the quantification
of the DBS effect by sensorimotor behavioral tests.
Keywords:
EIS, Intracerebral electrodes, Basal ganglia, Subthalamic nucleus,
Rat brain, Chronic instrumentation, 6-OHDA, Parkinson's disease.
1
Introduction
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a widespread degenerative disorder of the central nervous
system that affects motor function, speech, cognition and vegetative functions. The
cardinal symptoms such as tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia and postural instability re-
sult mainly from the death of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta
*
Corresponding authors.
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