What is it about?
Rats running in circles because of damage to one side of their brain dopamine system are a powerful preparation on which to develop drugs for Parkinson's disease patients, but the rats strange behaviour seems very unlike what happens to patients with the disease. This article summarizes some ideas that link the reduced movement in the patients. In tests that allow for the animals use of all four paws to move do show specific problems in the affected paw, but they are harder to use in drug tests. The idea that, the motor perception of the consequences of movement is at fault, allows one idea to explain the problems of both animals and humans.
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Why is it important?
These ideas link the peculiarity of Parkinsonian motor symptoms to a theory of movement control that helps understand the problems faced by patients better.
Perspectives
This was an idea that I had shared with Steve Dunnett and wrote up for his book.
Professor Gordon William Arbuthnott
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Of Rats and Patients: Some Thoughts About Why Rats Turn in Circles and Parkinson’s Disease Patients Cannot Move Normally, January 2011, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-61779-298-4_16.
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