TY - JOUR
T1 - Peripheral electrical stimulation to reduce pathological tremor
T2 - a review
AU - Pascual-Valdunciel, Alejandro
AU - Hoo, Grace W.
AU - Avrillon, Simon
AU - Barroso, Filipe Oliveira
AU - Goldman, Jennifer G.
AU - Hernandez-Pavon, Julio C.
AU - Pons, José L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Project EXTEND—Bidirectional Hyper-Connected Neural System) under grant agreement No 779982). This work was also funded by the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Interventions to reduce tremor in essential tremor (ET) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) clinical populations often utilize pharmacological or surgical therapies. However, there can be significant side effects, decline in effectiveness over time, or clinical contraindications for these interventions. Therefore, alternative approaches must be considered and developed. Some non-pharmacological strategies include assistive devices, orthoses and mechanical loading of the tremorgenic limb, while others propose peripheral electrical stimulation. Specifically, peripheral electrical stimulation encompasses strategies that activate motor and sensory pathways to evoke muscle contractions and impact sensorimotor function. Numerous studies report the efficacy of peripheral electrical stimulation to alter tremor generation, thereby opening new perspectives for both short- and long-term tremor reduction. Therefore, it is timely to explore this promising modality in a comprehensive review. In this review, we analyzed 27 studies that reported the use of peripheral electrical stimulation to reduce tremor and discuss various considerations regarding peripheral electrical stimulation: the stimulation strategies and parameters, electrodes, experimental designs, results, and mechanisms hypothesized to reduce tremor. From our review, we identified a high degree of disparity across studies with regard to stimulation patterns, experimental designs and methods of assessing tremor. Having standardized experimental methodology is a critical step in the field and is needed in order to accurately compare results across studies. With this review, we explore peripheral electrical stimulation as an intervention for tremor reduction, identify the limitations and benefits of the current state-of-the-art studies, and provide ideas to guide the development of novel approaches based on the neural circuitries and mechanical properties implied in tremor generation.
AB - Interventions to reduce tremor in essential tremor (ET) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) clinical populations often utilize pharmacological or surgical therapies. However, there can be significant side effects, decline in effectiveness over time, or clinical contraindications for these interventions. Therefore, alternative approaches must be considered and developed. Some non-pharmacological strategies include assistive devices, orthoses and mechanical loading of the tremorgenic limb, while others propose peripheral electrical stimulation. Specifically, peripheral electrical stimulation encompasses strategies that activate motor and sensory pathways to evoke muscle contractions and impact sensorimotor function. Numerous studies report the efficacy of peripheral electrical stimulation to alter tremor generation, thereby opening new perspectives for both short- and long-term tremor reduction. Therefore, it is timely to explore this promising modality in a comprehensive review. In this review, we analyzed 27 studies that reported the use of peripheral electrical stimulation to reduce tremor and discuss various considerations regarding peripheral electrical stimulation: the stimulation strategies and parameters, electrodes, experimental designs, results, and mechanisms hypothesized to reduce tremor. From our review, we identified a high degree of disparity across studies with regard to stimulation patterns, experimental designs and methods of assessing tremor. Having standardized experimental methodology is a critical step in the field and is needed in order to accurately compare results across studies. With this review, we explore peripheral electrical stimulation as an intervention for tremor reduction, identify the limitations and benefits of the current state-of-the-art studies, and provide ideas to guide the development of novel approaches based on the neural circuitries and mechanical properties implied in tremor generation.
KW - Afferent fibers
KW - Electrical stimulation
KW - Essential tremor
KW - Neural circuitry
KW - Parkinson’s disease
KW - Stimulation parameters
KW - Tremor
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U2 - 10.1186/s12984-021-00811-9
DO - 10.1186/s12984-021-00811-9
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33588841
AN - SCOPUS:85101426140
VL - 18
JO - Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
JF - Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
SN - 1743-0003
IS - 1
M1 - 33
ER -