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Modulating memory circuits: focal DBS treatments to improve medial temporal lobe function

Project Overview

Two diseases that show very different trajectories have nevertheless led researchers to identify dysfunction in a common brain network. The diseases in question are Alzheimer’s disease, a devastating neurodegenerative disorder, and temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common type of partial-seizure epilepsy, characterized by brief episodes of abnormally synchronous neural activity. The structures implicated in these diseases are focused earliest and most severely in the ‘memory network’: the hippocampus and other regions to which it is connected. This has led independent researchers studying two different diseases, to the same place, using similar tools, in search of treatments. This proposal integrates the expertise of researchers from fundamental and clinical backgrounds, across diseases that target a common brain network. The goal is to modulate the memory network using innovative, focal stimulation methods, to improve network function. Dr. Hoffman and her team will achieve this goal by using novel approaches to a promising therapeutic approach known as ‘deep brain stimulation’ (DBS), that has recently been applied to the treatment of AD and epilepsy. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) involves the targeted delivery of patterned electrical stimulation to specific brain regions. DBS is best known for its use in the treatment of debilitating symptoms in movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease (PD; a neurodegenerative disorder). The therapeutic mechanisms of DBS, and sensitive markers of its efficacy are largely unknown. Understanding the response pathway would be a critical step towards the refinement of DBS delivery to structures in the memory network leading to possible improvements in treatment efficacy. By testing preclinical models and through analysis of epilepsy and AD-fDBS patient data, the team anticipates that their project will shed light on the pathophysiology and progression of both diseases, and point the way to therapeutic refinements in DBS that may lead to better patient care.

Principal Investigator

Kari Hoffman , York University

Team Members

Sylvain Williams, Douglas Mental Health University Institute

Taufik Valiante, University Health Network

Andres Lozano, University Health Network

Mallar Chakravarty, Douglas Mental Health University Institute

Jason Lerch, University of Toronto

Milos Popovic, University of Toronto

Partners and Donors

Krembil Foundation

Project Ongoing

Modulating memory circuits: focal DBS treatments to improve medial temporal lobe function

  • Program Type

    Team grants

  • Area of research

    Central Nervous System

  • Disease Area

    Alzheimer’s

  • Competition

    2014 MIRI Team Grants

  • Province

    Ontario

  • Start Date

    2015

  • Total Grant Amount

    $1,387,295

Contact Us

1200 McGill College Avenue
Suite 1600, Montreal, Quebec
H3B 4G7

+1 (514) 989-2989 info@braincanada.ca

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Territorial acknowledgement

The offices of Brain Canada Foundation are located on the traditional, ancestral territory of the Kanien'kehá:ka Peoples, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations. We honour and pay respect to elders past, present and emerging, and dedicate ourselves to moving forward in the spirit of partnership, collaboration, and reconciliation. In our work, we focus our efforts on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, particularly those that pertain to improving health for Indigenous Peoples and that focus on advancing our own learning on Indigenous issues.

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