Substantia nigra pars reticulata involvement in auditory hallucinations of treatment-resistant schizophrenia: a deep brain stimulation case report
One-third of schizophrenia patients exhibit treatment resistance, underscoring the need for mechanism-based interventions. We report that deep brain stimulation of the substantia nigra pars reticulata has acutely alleviated persistent auditory hallucinations by 64% in a treatment-resistant schizophrenia patient. Deep brain stimulation normalized hallucination-correlated elevation of intraoperative electrocortical theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling at language-related cortical areas. These findings suggest aberrant cortical synchronization may be involved in the generation of verbal hallucinations and highlight subcortical modulation as a potential therapeutic strategy.
Authors
- Yousef Salimpour (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7546-004X)
- Nicola G. Cascella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7904-939X)
- Frederick C. Nucifora
- Ankur Butala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5994-4653)
- David J. Schretlen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3992-5601)
- Philip Harvey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0565-3102)
- Ki Sueng Choi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6446-0677)
- Michael J. C. Bray (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4650-1313)
- Anruo Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1974-4045)
- Min Jae Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1767-9457)
- W. S. Anderson
- Akira Sawa
- Kelly A Mills
- Martijn Figee
Institutions
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- University of Miami (US)
- Johns Hopkins Medicine (US)
- Behavioral Pharma (United States) (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Schizophrenia
- Published
- 2026-01-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41537-026-00732-3
- Primary Topic
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00