Abstract
In patients with Parkinson’s disease and in animal models of this disorder, neurons in the basal ganglia and related regions in thalamus and cortex show changes that can be recorded by using electrophysiologic single-cell recording techniques, including altered firing rates and patterns, pathologic oscillatory activity and increased inter-neuronal synchronization. In addition, changes in synaptic potentials or in the joint spiking activities of populations of neurons can be monitored as alterations in local field potentials (LFPs), electroencephalograms (EEGs) or electrocorticograms (ECoGs). Most of the mentioned electrophysiologic changes are probably related to the degeneration of diencephalic dopaminergic neurons, leading to dopamine loss in the striatum and other basal ganglia nuclei, although degeneration of non-dopaminergic cell groups may also have a role. The altered electrical activity of the basal ganglia and associated nuclei may contribute to some of the motor signs of the disease. We here review the current knowledge of the electrophysiologic changes at the single cell level, the level of local populations of neural elements, and the level of the entire basal ganglia-thalamocortical network in parkinsonism, and discuss the possible use of this information to optimize treatment approaches to Parkinson’s disease, such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is primarily characterized by movement deficits, but encompasses many non-motor problems
We summarize the current knowledge of some of the electrophysiological changes that occur in the basal ganglia and related thalamic and cortical areas in parkinsonism
We focus on results obtained with extracellular recordings in parkinsonian animals or in human PD patients
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is primarily characterized by movement deficits, but encompasses many non-motor problems. We summarize the current knowledge of some of the electrophysiological changes that occur in the basal ganglia and related thalamic and cortical areas in parkinsonism. Studies of functional abnormalities can be conducted using non-electrophysiological methods (for instance, by using markers of metabolism or imaging techniques). The results of these studies are not covered here in any detail, but have been discussed in other publications (e.g., Galvan and Wichmann, 2008; Lindenbach and Bishop, 2013). Depending on the function of the frontal cortical area of origin, these basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuits are designated as “motor”, “associative/cognitive” and “limbic” (Figure 2, Alexander et al, 1986, 1990; Middleton and Strick, 2000). The information is transferred to the output nuclei of the basal ganglia, the GPi
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