Pallidal beta power is associated with depression in Parkinson’s disease

Depression is increasingly recognized as a prevalent source of disability in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD), but its pathophysiology is not well understood. Neural activity in the basal ganglia, particularly the subthalamic nucleus, has been linked to depression in PD, but the role of the pallidum remains unclear. This retrospective study aimed to correlate preoperative depression symptoms with intraoperative resting-state neural activity recorded from the pallidum in N = 50 patients who underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) implantation surgery. Patients with clinically elevated depression symptoms exhibited elevated beta (13–30 Hz) power compared to patients without depression. Beta power, particularly high beta (20–30 Hz) power, was also associated with depression symptom severity, even when controlling for other demographic, clinical, pharmacological, and neurophysiological variables. These results establish pallidal beta power as a potential biomarker of depression in PD and set the stage for tailoring DBS therapy to improve psychiatric symptoms in PD.