The Paradoxical Effect of Deep Brain Stimulation on Memory

Shawn Zheng Kai Tan, Man-Lung Fung, Junhao Koh, Ying-Shing Chan, Lee Wei Lim

Table 1 Non-exhaustive list of rodent studies looking at the effects of Deep Brain Stimulation on memory.

Target Study Stimulation Parameters Paradigm Results Ventromedial prefrontal cortex Liu et al., 2015 [7] Single 1-h stimulation 30 mins prior to behaviour testing Morris Water Maze, Novel Object Recognition Only short-term memory improvement Daily 1-h stimulation for 4 weeks, 30 mins prior to behaviour testing Morris Water Maze, Novel Object Recognition Long-lasting benefits to memory Tan et al., 2019 [57] Single 15-min stimulation during consolidation Fear Conditioning Disruption of memory Forniceal area Sweet et al., 2010 [124] Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) model (also non-TBI), stimulation 15 min before and during testing Delayed non-match-to-sample swim T-maze No significant difference in non-TBI animals Hescham et al., 2013 [5] 6 consecutive sessions with different parameters, 2 mins before and during behaviour testing Object Location Task Specific memory benefits in certain parameters (did not consider cumulative effects) Hao et al., 2015 [94] Rett syndrome mice, daily 1-h stimulation for 2 weeks, not stimulated during behaviour days Morris Water Maze, Contextual Fear Rescue of impaired memory Hescham et al., 2016 [43] Single 6-h stimulation, behaviour testing 30 days after stimulation Morris Water Maze Improvement in memory Entorhinal cortex Stone et al., 2011 [41] Single 30 to 120-min stimulation, behaviour testing 10 weeks after Morris Water Maze Improvement in memory Xia et al., 2017 [4] Alzheimer's mice model, single 1-h stimulation, behaviour testing 1,3,6 weeks post-stimulation Morris Water Maze, Contextual Fear Improvement later at 3 & 6 weeks but not at 1 week Anterior thalamus Hamani et al., 2010 [96] Stimulation during behaviour testing Contextual Fear Impaired memory Stimulation immediately after behaviour testing (unknown time) Contextual Fear No significant difference Hamani et al., 2011 [40] Cortisone-treated rats, single 1-h stimulation, behaviour testing 4/28 days after stimulation Non-Matching-to-Sample Rescue of impaired memory