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Unravelling the actions of deep brain stimulation: potential role for astrocytes

Molecular Psychiatry volume 17, page 115 (2012)Cite this article

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Although deep brain stimulation (DBS) is commonly used as a therapy for treatment-resistant movement disorders, epilepsy and neuropsychiatric disorders, its mode of action is unclear. Neurons (indicated in green in the figure) have always been the main focus in the studies concerning the mechanism of DBS, however, these cells are probably not solely involved in the effect of stimulation. We review recent data revealing that both astrocyte reactivity and astrocyte-driven neurogenesis are important for the therapeutic effect of DBS, and conclude astrocytes (shown in red) to be potential players in the effect. For more information on this topic, please refer to the article by Vedma-Mai et al. on pages 124–131.

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Author notes

  1. V Vedam-Mai and E Y van Battum: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    V Vedam-Mai, B A Reynolds & M S Okun

  2. Department of Astrocyte Biology and Neurodegeneration, the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, an Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (NIN-KNAW), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    E Y van Battum, W Kamphuis & E M Hol

  3. Department of Neuromodulation and Behaviour, NIN-KNAW, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    M G P Feenstra & D Denys

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    D Denys

  5. Department of Neurology, Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    M S Okun

Authors
  1. V Vedam-Mai
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  2. E Y van Battum
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  3. W Kamphuis
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  4. M G P Feenstra
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  5. D Denys
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  6. B A Reynolds
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  7. M S Okun
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  8. E M Hol
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Vedam-Mai, V., van Battum, E., Kamphuis, W. et al. Unravelling the actions of deep brain stimulation: potential role for astrocytes. Mol Psychiatry 17, 115 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2011.184

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