A Human Gait Circuit Derived from Brain Lesions and Deep Brain Stimulation.
Stroke-lesion and Parkinson's deep brain stimulation gait circuits converge on a shared brain network.
A Human Gait Circuit Derived from Brain Lesions and Deep Brain Stimulation.
The human neuroanatomy for gait dysfunction remains unclear.
We sought (1) to identify a brain circuit for gait impairment post stroke, (2) to identify a brain circuit for gait changes after subthalamic deep brain stimulation (deep brain stimulation) for Parkinson's disease (PD), and (3) to test for convergence between these 2 circuits.
This cross-sectional retrospective study used data from 4 independent datasets including 109 individuals with stroke and 125 PD patients who received subthalamic deep brain stimulation.
Connectivity between lesion locations and a priori regions were associated with gait impairment post-stroke (p < 0.05), along with connectivity to a distributed circuit of other brain regions.
Connectivity between deep brain stimulation sites and our a priori gait regions and connectivity between deep brain stimulation sites and our lesion-based gait circuit were all associated with gait changes post deep brain stimulation (p < 10 -3 ).
Lesion locations impairing gait and deep brain stimulation sites modulating gait converge on a common brain circuit. ANN NEUROL 2026.