New research lays groundwork for safer, more tailored deep brain stimulation
Written by Marisa Wexler, MS | April 6, 2026
- The findings from new research in China may enable personalized deep brain stimulation for people with Parkinson's.
- The study's scientists used MRI scans to track brain circuit changes during DBS treatment.
- The researchers say this work allows them to better understand how this type of Parkinson's treatment influences brain biology.
Scientists have demonstrated that it is possible to collect individualized data on how connections among brain circuits change for people with Parkinson’s disease who are undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) as a treatment for their symptoms.
These findings lay the groundwork for more individualized approaches for DBS, and also provide a new resource for researchers to better understand how this type of Parkinson’s treatment influences brain biology, according to the team.
The data were described in “Circuit response to neuromodulation characterized with simultaneous deep brain stimulation and precision neuroimaging in humans,” a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience. The work was funded mainly by the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
The senior author of the study, Hesheng Liu, PhD, is the cofounder and chief scientific officer of Galaxy Brain Scientific, a China-based company that is working to advance personalized DBS approaches for Parkinson’s and other neurological disorders.
“Our goal is to redefine the treatment paradigm for brain disorders,” Liu said in a company press release detailing the findings. According to Galaxy, “this study establishes the world’s largest longitudinal … dataset to date” on DBS and MRI brain imaging scans.
“By moving from ‘one-size-fits-all’ to ‘one-person-one-strategy,’ we are now pioneering the application of this technology to treat complex conditions beyond Parkinson’s, including autism and Alzheimer’s disease,” Liu said.
Parkinson’s is a neurological disorder in which certain brain cells sicken and die, leading to disruptions in brain signaling that ultimately give rise to disease symptoms.
DBS is a surgical treatment for Parkinson’s in which tiny electrodes are implanted into the brain to deliver gentle electrical stimulation to specific brain regions. DBS is well-established as an effective approach for managing certain Parkinson’s symptoms.
Nonetheless, there’s often a lot of trial and error involved in finding the exact right settings to ease symptoms for each individual.
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