A Slow Axon Antidromic Blockade Hypothesis for Tremor Reduction via Deep Brain Stimulation

Parkinsonian and essential tremor can often be effectively treated by deep brain stimulation. We propose a novel explanation for the mechanism by which this technique ameliorates tremor: a reduction of the delay in the relevant motor control loops via preferential antidromic blockade of slow axons. The antidromic blockade is preferential because the pulses more rapidly clear fast axons, and the distribution of axonal diameters, and therefore velocities, in the involved tracts, is sufficiently long-tailed to make this effect quite significant. The preferential blockade of slow axons, combined with gain adaptation, results in a reduction of the mean delay in the motor control loop, which serves to stabilize the feedback system, thus ameliorating tremor. This theory, without any tuning, accounts for several previously perplexing phenomena, and makes a variety of novel predictions.