To understand the mechanism of movement facilitation and inhibition in the subthalamic nucleus (STN), we recorded intra-operatively subthalamic multiunit activity while parkinsonian patients (n=43 patients, 173 recording sites) performed increasingly complex oddball paradigms: auditory task, simple movement task and movement inhibition task. We found that the human STN responds mainly to movement-involving tasks: movement execution at the motor STN and movement planning at the limbic-associative STN. At the limbic-associative STN, responses to the inhibitory cue (deviant tone) in the movement inhibition task were not significantly different from the simple movement task. However, responses to the go cue (frequent tone) were significantly decreased in the movement inhibition task. Successful motor inhibition was correlated with a higher baseline activity before the inhibitory cue. We therefore suggest that the subthalamic nucleus adapts to movement inhibition context by selectively decreasing the amplitude of neuronal activity. Smaller fluctuations might enable better preparation for possible inhibition

Movement context modulates neuronal activity in motor and limbic-associative domains of the human subthalamic nucleus