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Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a widely performed surgical treatment for patients with Parkinson's disease. The goal of the surgery is to place an electrode centered in the motor region of the STN while lowering the effects of electrical stimulation on the non-motor regions. However, distinguishing the motor region from the neighboring associative and limbic areas in individual patients using imaging modalities was until recently difficult to obtain in vivo. Here, using ultra-high field MR imaging, we have performed a dissection of the subdivisions of the STN of individual Parkinson's disease patients.

We have acquired 7 T diffusion-weighted images of seventeen patients with Parkinson's disease scheduled for deep brain stimulation surgery. Using a structural connectivity-based parcellation protocol, the STN's connections to the motor, limbic, and associative cortical areas were used to map …