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Abstract
Basal ganglia dysfunction has being implied in both Parkinson's disease and dystonia. While these disorders probably involve different cellular and circuit pathologies within and beyond basal ganglia, there may be some shared neurophysiological pathways. For example, pallidotomy and pallidal Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) are used in symptomatic treatment of both disorders. Both conditions are marked by alterations of rhythmicity of neural activity throughout basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits. Increased synchronized oscillatory activity in beta band is characteristic of Parkinson's disease, while different frequency bands, theta and alpha, are involved in dystonia. We compare the effect of the activity of GPi, the output nuclei of the basal ganglia, on information processing in the downstream neural circuits of thalamus in Parkinson's disease and dystonia. We use a data-driven computational approach, a computational model of the thalamocortical (TC) cell modulated by experimentally recorded data, to study the differences and similarities of thalamic dynamics in dystonia and Parkinson's disease. Our analysis shows no substantial differences in TC relay between the two conditions. Our results suggest that, similar to Parkinson's disease, a disruption of thalamic processing could also be involved in dystonia. Moreover, the degree to which TC relay fidelity is impaired is approximately the same in both conditions. While Parkinson's disease and dystonia may have different pathologies and differ in the oscillatory content of neural discharge, our results suggest that the effect of patterning of pallidal discharge is similar in both conditions. Furthermore, these results suggest that the mechanisms of GPi DBS in dystonia may involve improvement of TC relay fidelity.
Highlights
Dystonia is a widespread neurological disorder characterized by sustained muscle contractions, involuntary repetitive movements and abnormal posture
Since PD patients often present some dystonic symptomatology (Jankovic, 2008), it is not surprising that our results demonstrate similar effects on TC relay fidelity in the two conditions
This study does not explore correlations of particular features of TC relay with specific sets of motor symptoms. It suggests that even if the specifics of pallidal activity are different between PD and DY, the downstream effect on TC relay fidelity is the same in both conditions. These results suggest that the mechanisms of Globus Pallidus (GPi) deep brain stimulation (DBS) in DY may involve improvement of fidelity of TC relay
Summary
Dystonia is a widespread neurological disorder characterized by sustained muscle contractions, involuntary repetitive movements and abnormal posture. Some dystonia cases have clear genetic origin, but there is no apparent neurodegeneration, some functional and microstructural brain abnormalities have being detected and abnormalities of neural plasticity in sensorimotor networks have been described (Breakefield et al, 2008). Another disorder where pathology of the basal ganglia is involved is Parkinson’s disease. Comparison of basal ganglia activity in dystonia and Parkinson’s disease may shed light on the pathophysiology of both disorders
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