Parkinson's disease, subthalamic nucleus and serotonin

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Parkinson's disease, subthalamic nucleus and serotonin Yasin Temel1* 1 Maastricht University Medical Center, Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Health,Medicine and Life Sciences, Netherlands The use of stimulation electrodes implanted in the brain to control severely disabling neurological and psychiatric conditions is an exciting and fast emerging area of clinical neuroscience, and very much in the public eye. An excellent example is Parkinson’s disease in which thousands of patients worldwide have been implanted with electrodes in the subthalamic nucleus (STN). The relief of movement disability by STN stimulation is predictable as this nucleus is a critical part of the brain’s motor circuits. Surprisingly, however, STN stimulation can be associated with the occurrence of unpleasant and debilitating psychiatric effects. These effects are a major burden to patients and their families, and are currently without satisfactory explanation. The findings of our studies provide a new insight into this problem. Since changes in brain, 5-HT (serotonin) have long been linked with mood disturbances, we reasoned that STN stimulation might inappropriately influence the functioning of 5-HT neurons. Our electrophysiological experiments using an in vivo animal model show that STN stimulation, at parameters used clinically, exerts a specific, reproducible, reversible and powerful inhibitory effect on 5-HT neurons. Moreover, we find that STN stimulation also evokes depressive-like behaviour, and that this effect can be prevented by administration of a 5-HT specific antidepressant. These findings strongly predict that reduced 5-HT output contributes to the psychiatric disturbances induced by STN stimulation, and provide a rational basis for their clinical management. Moreover, the unsuspected link between the STN and the 5-HT system supports the existence of a novel ‘motor-limbic interface’ that may contribute to mood disturbances in wider populations of psychiatric and neurological patients. Conference: 3rd Mediterranean Conference of Neuroscience , Alexandria, Egypt, 13 Dec - 16 Dec, 2009. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Symposium 26 - Exploring new therapies for Parkinson's disease" Citation: Temel Y (2009). Parkinson's disease, subthalamic nucleus and serotonin. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: 3rd Mediterranean Conference of Neuroscience . doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.01.2009.16.119 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 23 Nov 2009; Published Online: 23 Nov 2009. * Correspondence: Yasin Temel, Maastricht University Medical Center, Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Health,Medicine and Life Sciences, 6200 MD Maastricht, Netherlands, Y.Temel@np.unimaas.nl Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Yasin Temel Google Yasin Temel Google Scholar Yasin Temel PubMed Yasin Temel Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.