Rats, Rhythms and Robust Loss of Dopamine: What Can We Learn from Excessive Synchronization in Basal Ganglia Circuits in Parkinson’s Disease?

CNBC Colloquium
Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC)

Rats, Rhythms and Robust Loss of Dopamine: What Can We Learn from Excessive Synchronization in Basal Ganglia Circuits in Parkinson’s Disease?

Judith Walters, PhD
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
December 7, 2017 - 4:00pm
6014 Biomedical Science Tower 3
Abstract: The loss of dopamine neurons induces dramatic increases in synchronized and oscillatory local field potential (LFP) activity in many components of the basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuit. The emergence of this phenomenon raises many questions and provides a number of opportunities for the curious investigator. How do the exaggerated rhythms emerge? How and why do they differ in frequency and power across behavioral states and between species? Can they provide insight into spike-local field relationships and our ability to use LFPs to predict spike timing and direction of information flow under more normal conditions? Are they the products of compensatory mechanisms or simply coincidental to circuit disruption? Importantly, do they cause motor symptoms? Do they reflect processes common to other disease states and can they help us with designing strategies for reversing circuit dysfunction? This talk will discuss efforts to address these questions in studies involving simultaneous recordings of spike and LFPs in various nodes of the basal ganglia thalamocortical circuit across a range of behavioral states in the hemiparkinsonian rat.