Neuromodulation-induced normalization of cortical metastable dynamics signatures in Parkinson's disease.

Chenfei Ye, Chen Ran, Yongxin Xu, Chunguang Chu, Chenhao Yang, Chencheng Zhang, Yu Liu, Ting Ma

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Article in NPJ Parkinson's disease, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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8 authors.

Chenfei Ye *School of Biomedical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, China.

Chen Ran *Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, China.

Yongxin Xu *Key Laboratory of Exercise and Health Sciences of Ministry of Education, School of Exercise and Health, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China.

Chunguang ChuDepartment of Anatomy and Physiology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.

Chenhao YangKey Laboratory of Exercise and Health Sciences of Ministry of Education, School of Exercise and Health, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China.

Chencheng ZhangDepartment of Neurosurgery, Clinical Neuroscience Center, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China. i@cchang.org.

Yu LiuKey Laboratory of Exercise and Health Sciences of Ministry of Education, School of Exercise and Health, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China. yuliu@sus.edu.cn.

Ting MaSchool of Biomedical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, China. tma@hit.edu.cn.

Funding

Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation 2023A1515010792, 2023B1515120065National Key Research and Development Program of China 2021YFC2501202National Natural Science Foundation of P.R. China 62106113National Natural Science Foundation of P.R. China 62276081Shenzhen Science and Technology Program GXWD20231129121139001, JCYJ20240813110522029

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) alleviates motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD), but how it modulates whole-brain dynamics to drive therapeutic effects remains unclear. We hypothesized that STN-DBS restores signatures of cortical metastability-a dynamic balance between integration and segregation of neural networks-critical for adaptive behavior. Using a novel Weighted Eigenvector Dynamics Analysis (WEiDA) on resting-state fMRI data from PD patients, we identified four recurring probabilistic metastable substates (PMS). PD patients exhibited aberrantly low occupancy of a state characterized by decoupling between visual (VN) and somatomotor/ventral attention (SMN/VAN) networks (State V-VA/SM), which normalized with DBS and correlated with motor improvement. This rebalancing was mediated by decreased local metastability and enhanced functional segregation between VN and SMN/VAN modules, linked to cholinergic gene expression (CHRNA10). Notably, analogous normalization of metastable dynamics and symptom relief emerged during noninvasive STN-targeted temporal interference stimulation (tTIS), indicating converged network-level mechanisms across neuromodulation modalities. Our findings highlight cortical metastability signatures as a potential substrate for DBS efficacy in PD, bridging invasive and noninvasive therapeutic strategies through dynamic brain state modulation.

Identifiers

PMID42009672

DOI10.1038/s41531-026-01354-3

PMCPMC13280393

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.