DBS Full Storyboard

Slide 1 Just to introduce a sort of story format, I think it would be cool to have the first part of the DBS lab to be a set of doors like in the Parkinson’s Lab. The student will click the door to enter and will proceed to the next slide. If this is not feasible, going straight into

Welcome to the Deep Brain Stimulation clinic! My name is Dr. Rita Smith. I understand that you are an up and coming medical student looking to become a neuroscientist! Well, you came to the right place. Today, I will be teaching you the basics behind a surgical procedure called Deep Brain Stimulation. Once you have mastered the information, you will assist me in performing surgery on a patient. Let’s get started! Slide 2

Slide 3 The patient coming in today is named James Johnson. He suffers from a neurological disorder known as essential tremor that results in his hands shaking against his will. James works as a weather forecaster with a major news television station. The tremor in James’s hand has gotten so bad that he is close to losing his job as people focus more on his uncontrollable hand shaking than the news. Let’s go meet James and do some preliminary testing.

Hello James, I am Dr. Rita Smith. I will be the primary surgeon working with you. The student I have with me will be helping me with the surgery after extensive training. Could you draw a circle on this paper to demonstrate the severity of your essential tremor? After the deep brain stimulation surgery, we will have you sign your name again for comparison purposes.

As you can see, James’ hand tremoring is so bad that he can barely draw a circle! Thank you James’, see you at the surgery!

Let’s go over some basics. James suffers from essential tremor. This is caused by a group of neurons in an area of his brain known as the Ventral Intermediate Nucleus of the thalamus that are going haywire.