Approximately 80-90% of individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) develop motor speech impairments, predominantly in the form of voice dysfunction. It is known that the motor symptoms of PD arise from degeneration of the dopamine producing neurons in the substantia nigra and dysregulation of basal ganglia motor pathways. It is also...
The basal ganglia are a remarkably complicated and interconnected tangle of subcortical nuclei whose exact function and composition are hotly debated to this day. What is plainly obvious, however, is that loss of dopaminergic modulation in the basal ganglia, as is the case in Parkinson’s disease (PD) following the progressive...
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a movement disorder that arises following the degeneration of dopamine-producing neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). Patients experience a host of limiting motor symptoms such as rigidity, tremor, and a paucity of controlled movement generation. These symptoms often correspond with a predominance of abnormally...
When navigating through space, the brain must integrate sensory information with past experiences to choose behaviors that are most likely to produce a positive outcome. Striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) expressing dopamine receptor 1 (D1) and dopamine receptor 2 (D2) receive sensory and motor information from cortical and midbrain regions...
Following dopaminergic denervation in Parkinson's Disease, firing patterns in several basal ganglia neuron populations are pathologically altered. In the globus pallidus (GP), this manifests as a loss of autonomous, rhythmic, high-frequency pacemaking and an appearance of correlated, oscillatory bursting. This oscillatory bursting is best disrupted through high-frequency stimulation of affected...