Helen Bronte-Stewart, MD, a movement disorder specialist and director of Stanford’s Movement Disorders Center, will be talking about her leading edge work on deep brain stimulation surgery at the Palo Alto Young Onset Parkinson’s Support Group meeting on Tuesday, February 14th, 6:30-8pm.  The meeting is held in the Boardroom at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.  This event is free and open to those diagnosed with PD by age 50 or younger, and their family members.  An RSVP 24 hours in advance is required to the group leader, Martha Gardner.

Dr. Bronte-Stewart is an expert on deep brain stimulation (DBS).  She and her team have discovered that people with Parkinson’s Disease may have signature “brain arrhythmias” in the subthalamic nucleus in the brain. These rhythms are reduced by DBS at intensities that improve movement. She and her team are now investigating whether these rhythms are directly associated with abnormal movement and therefore whether that can be used as a biomarker for demand brain pacemakers, similar to demand cardiac pacemakers. They are also studying whether this abnormal rhythm comes from the cortex and whether this will be another potential site for electrical stimulation to treat movement disorders.

She will be sharing highlights of this leading edge work during her talk to the YOPD support group. While her talk will focus on DBS, she will answer audience questions on other PD-related topics.