Beyond beta rhythms: subthalamic aperiodic broadband power scales with Parkinson's disease severity–a cross-sectional multicentre study

Moritz Gerster, Gunnar Waterstraat, Thomas S. Binns, Natasha Darcy, Christoph Wiest, Richard M. Köhler, Jojo Vanhoecke, Timothy O. West, Matthias Sure, Dmitrii Todorov, Lukasz Radzinski, Jeroen Habets, Johannes L. Busch, Lucia K. Feldmann, Patricia Krause, Katharina Faust, Gerd-Helge Schneider, Keyoumars Ashkan, Erlick Pereira, Harith Akram, Ludvic Zrinzo, Benjamin Blankertz, Arno Villringer, Huiling Tan, Jan Hirschmann, Andrea A. Kühn, Esther Florin, Alfons Schnitzler, Ashwini Oswal, Vladimir Litvak, Wolf-Julian Neumann, Gabriel Curio, and Vadim Nikulin

Gerster M., Waterstraat G., Binns T.S., Darcy N., Wiest C., Köhler R.M., Vanhoecke J., West T.O., Sure M., Todorov D., Radzinski L., et al., 2025. Beyond beta rhythms: subthalamic aperiodic broadband power scales with Parkinson's disease severity–a cross-sectional multicentre study. eBioMedicine, Volume 122, 105988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2025.105988.

Abstract

Parkinson's disease is linked to increased beta oscillations in the subthalamic nucleus, which correlate with motor symptoms. However, findings across studies have varied. Our standardized analysis of multicenter datasets shows that small sample sizes contributed to these discrepancies—a challenge we address by pooling datasets into one large cohort (n=119). Moving beyond beta power, we disentangled spectral components reflecting distinct neural processes. Combining aperiodic offset, low beta, and low gamma oscillations explained significantly more variance in symptom severity than beta alone. Moreover, interhemispheric within-patient analyses showed that, unlike beta oscillations, aperiodic broadband power–likely reflecting spiking activity–was increased in the more affected hemisphere. These findings identify aperiodic broadband power as a potential biomarker for adaptive deep brain stimulation and provide novel insights into the relationship between subthalamic hyperactivity and motor symptoms in human Parkinson's disease.

Summary

This multicentre study investigates subthalamic local field potential biomarkers in Parkinson's disease beyond the classical beta rhythm. It examines whether aperiodic broadband power, low gamma activity, and other spectral features of subthalamic nucleus recordings scale with motor symptom severity. The paper is relevant for researchers searching for electrophysiological biomarkers of Parkinson's disease, adaptive deep brain stimulation, STN-LFP recordings, beta oscillations, aperiodic 1/f activity, and UPDRS motor severity.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease; deep brain stimulation; adaptive DBS; subthalamic nucleus; STN-LFP; local field potentials; beta oscillations; low gamma; aperiodic broadband power; aperiodic 1/f activity; motor symptom severity; UPDRS-III.

Links

BibTeX 
@article{gerster2025beyond,
  title={Beyond beta rhythms: subthalamic aperiodic broadband power scales with {Parkinson's} disease severity--a cross-sectional multicentre study},
  author={Gerster, Moritz and Waterstraat, Gunnar and Binns, Thomas S. and Darcy, Natasha and Wiest, Christoph and K{\"o}hler, Richard M. and Vanhoecke, Jojo and West, Timothy O. and Sure, Matthias and Todorov, Dmitrii and Radzinski, Lukasz and Habets, Jeroen and Busch, Johannes L. and Feldmann, Lucia K. and Krause, Patricia and Faust, Katharina and Schneider, Gerd-Helge and Ashkan, Keyoumars and Pereira, Erlick and Akram, Harith and Zrinzo, Ludvic and Blankertz, Benjamin and Villringer, Arno and Tan, Huiling and Hirschmann, Jan and K{\"u}hn, Andrea A. and Florin, Esther and Schnitzler, Alfons and Oswal, Ashwini and Litvak, Vladimir and Neumann, Wolf-Julian and Curio, Gabriel and Nikulin, Vadim},
  journal={eBioMedicine},
  volume={122},
  pages={105988},
  year={2025},
  publisher={Elsevier},
  doi={10.1016/j.ebiom.2025.105988}
}