Parkinson’s Resting Tremors: A NetLogo-Based Neural Simulation of Dopamine and DBS

This paper visualises the neural activity during resting tremors and the effects of different treatments using a custom-built agent-based simulation in NetLogo to model a simplified neural resting oscillator. Among other symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, this study focuses on Parkinsonian Resting Tremors and investigates two treatments namely Deep Brain Stimulator and an Automatic Dopamine Dosage. Among other compounds effecting tremors, this study looks at dopamine levels as a primary factor for the frequency of tremors. It analyses the effects of treatments when various parameters are changed to observe the efficiency of both the treatments. The simulation demonstrates that Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is significantly more effective at suppressing Parkinsonian tremors when applied to the thalamic region compared to the cortical region. It also shows that increasing disease severity demands higher dopamine dosage frequency and quantity, with diminishing effectiveness at later stages.