For people living with Parkinson’s disease, there has been a gap between laboratory research and real-world behavior that has limited efforts to improve gait symptoms outside of the clinic. Now, researchers from UC San Francisco have taken an important step toward closing that gap by successfully moving the laboratory into the living room. In a new study published February 13 in Science Advances, the team demonstrated that brain activity recorded from fully implanted devices while patients are at home can be used to reliably determine whether a person is walking or not. By analyzing synchronized neural and movement data collected during more than 80 hours of unsupervised daily activity, researchers identified individualized patterns of brain activity associated with walking. These neural signatures allowed an implanted deep brain stimulation (DBS) device to classify movement states using signals generated during natural, at-home activities.

Even though aging is the largest risk factor for Parkinson’s disease, the majority of research aimed at taming the incurable neurodegenerative motor disease has largely left aging out of the mix.  A group of researchers from around the globe seek to change that.  “Unraveling the intersection of aging and Parkinson’s disease: a collaborative road map for advancing research models,” is now available online at the Nature publication npj Parkinson’s Disease.

By analyzing tissue from patients with Parkinson’s disease, and animal and cellular models of the disease, a research team from the Institut de Neurociències of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has shown that the main immune cells of the brain become reactive and overexpress certain receptors that promote the elimination of dopaminergic neurons, even when these neurons are still functional. The study points to a new immunotherapy approach that could help preserve viable neurons in people with this diagnosis.