Reduced entropy of subthalamic beta bursts predicts freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease

Authors

Beaudoin, C. A., O'Keeffe, A. B., Abdi-Sargezeh, B., Gillies, M. J., Oswal, A., Green, A. L.

Abstract

Background: Freezing of gait (FOG) in Parkinson's disease is associated with abnormal beta activity in the subthalamic nucleus (STN), but the temporal structure of burst dynamics remains poorly understood. Objectives: To determine whether temporal features of STN beta bursts distinguish pre-freeze from stable gait and predict freezing onset. Methods: STN recordings during gait from four individuals were analyzed. Temporal features of burst timing, including entropy and variability, were computed across behavioral states. Predictive performance was assessed using leave-one-patient-out classifiers. Results: Entropy of inter-burst intervals was reduced prior to freezing (p < 0.01), with strong predictive performance (AUC = 0.825; threshold AUC = 0.858). During freezing, variability measures decreased and temporal structure increased, while entropy did not differ from pre-freeze. Phase-amplitude coupling showed frequency-specific but heterogeneous effects across comparisons. Conclusions: Reduced temporal variability of STN beta burst timing precedes and predicts freezing, suggesting a transition to constrained neural dynamics.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 19 Aug 2026.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this preprint? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.