Challenges and opportunities of acquiring cortical recordings for chronic adaptive deep brain stimulation

Deep brain stimulation (DBS), a proven treatment for movement disorders, also holds promise for the treatment of psychiatric and cognitive conditions. However, for DBS to be clinically effective, it may require DBS technology that can alter or trigger stimulation in response to changes in biomarkers sensed from the patient’s brain. A growing body of evidence suggests that such adaptive DBS is feasible, it might achieve clinical effects that are not possible with standard continuous DBS and that some of the best biomarkers are signals from the cerebral cortex. Yet capturing those markers requires the placement of cortex-optimized electrodes in addition to standard electrodes for DBS. In this Perspective we argue that the need for cortical biomarkers in adaptive DBS and the unfortunate convergence of regulatory and financial factors underpinning the unavailability of cortical electrodes for chronic uses threatens to slow down or stall research on adaptive DBS and propose public–private partnerships as a potential solution to such a critical technological gap.