Importance: The clinical utility of monitoring behavioral changes during intraoperative testing of acute subcallosal cingulate deep brain stimulation (DBS) is unknown.
Objective: To characterize structural connectivity correlates of DBS evoked behavioral effects using probabilistic tractography.
Design: Categorization of acute behavioral effects was conducted during DBS implantation surgery for treatment-resistant depression in a randomized and blinded testing session. Post-hoc analyses of the structural tractography patterns mediating distinct categories of evoked behavioral effects were defined.
Setting: Intra-operative testing during DBS surgery for depression at Emory University.
Participants: 9 adult participants with chronic treatment-resistant depression undergoing DBS surgery.
Main Outcomes and Measures: Categorization of stimulation-induced transient behavioral effects and delineation of the shared white matter tracts mediating response subtypes.
Results: Two stereotypical behavior patterns were identified: changes in interoceptive (noted changes in body state) and in exteroceptive awareness (shift in attention from patient to others). Structural connectivity showed that 'best' responses had a pattern of connections to bilateral ventromedial frontal cortex (via uncinate fasciculus and forceps minor) and cingulate cortex (via cingulum bundle) while 'salient' contacts had only cingulate involvement.
Conclusions and Relevance: This analysis of acute intraoperative behaviors in SCC DBS, and the subsequent identification of unique connectivity patterns may provide a potential biomarker to guide and optimize surgical implantation and to refine and optimize algorithms for selection of contacts in chronic stimulation.