What is it about?
Some measures of neuron activity identified as belonging to the two output pathways from the striatum are overactive after the removal of dopamine. Activating both together reproduced the behavior abnormalities usually .seen in mice after the removal of dopamine.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Currently it is thought that the two output pathways are changed in opposite directions by the loss of dopamine. In our experiments both are activated. This changes the likely effects seen in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease. Therefore it suggests different interpretations of the disease and it possible treatment.
Perspectives
Because we use methods that look at the action of many neurons at once this result is not at all what we expected from the studies of single, or even of a few, neurons. It also makes us think harder about why Parkinson's patients have so much trouble moving normally.
Professor Gordon William Arbuthnott
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Synchronized activation of striatal direct and indirect pathways underlies the behavior in unilateral dopamine-depleted mice, European Journal of Neuroscience, January 2019, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14344.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
