My PD Story

2026 Impact Award

Creating a New Brain Model of Good Gait to Improve Deep Brain Stimulation

Most people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience gait impairment, a symptom impacting their ability to walk. Some also experience freezing of gait, moments when they are temporarily and involuntarily unable to move. Together, these movement symptoms make simple activities like crossing a room or navigating a hallway difficult and dangerous due to the increased risk of falling. 

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) can help address movement symptoms and may help to reduce falls, but for some people it loses its effectiveness over time or does not help at all. Helen Bronte-Stewart, MD, MS, recipient of a Parkinson’s Foundation Impact Award, will dive deep into complex brain circuitry data to find why DBS may not help walking for some people. She also seeks to find new signal patterns that could be leveraged to improve DBS treatments for people with PD in the future.

“This research could transform deep brain stimulation treatment for Parkinson’s disease by making it a smart therapy that adapts to the needs and symptoms of the patient.” - Dr. Bronte-Stewart

As director of the Human Motor Control and Neuromodulation Laboratory at Stanford University, a Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence, Dr. Bronte-Stewart has built a research team focused on analyzing how brain signals translate into movement. They are interested in how those signals are compromised by PD, and how treatments like DBS can be used to restore them.

For this study, Dr. Bronte-Stewart and her colleagues will analyze data from previous DBS clinical trials, which collected brain signaling and movement data from people performing a variety of tasks that triggered freezing of gait. Running this unique data through their advanced machine-learning programs, her team hopes to reveal new insights into how different brain signals—specifically, different types of brain waves—coordinate during effective movement and go awry during freezing.

This analysis will help Dr. Bronte-Stewart create a brain signal model of “good gait,” which could improve DBS treatments for walking by providing a better brain reference point. Finally, Dr. Bronte-Stewart and her team will apply this framework to understand and improve adaptive DBS treatments. The goal is when gait impairment occurs, the DBS implant could sense that the person is no longer within the “good gait” threshold and provide real-time stimulation to counteract the signals that are out of order. 

As a world-renowned leader in the development of adaptive DBS technology, Dr. Bronte-Stewart is excited about this support to help her team continue their pioneering work to improve walking in people with PD. 

“It is wonderful to be able to continue to use our DBS data to investigate the brain signals and circuits that contribute to gait impairment and freezing of gait in PD,” she said. “This award will enable us to continue our research into this complex cognitive-motor disorder that is one of the most debilitating features of PD, and I hope my lab can contribute to finding new therapies to address it.”

Meet more Parkinson’s researchers! Explore our My PD Stories featuring PD researchers.