Converging into a unified model of Parkinson’s disease pathophysiology

CAMILA L. ZOLD; MARIANO A. BELLUSCIO; FERNANDO KASANETZ; PABLO E. POMATA; LUIS A. RIQUELME; THOMAS BORAUD; FRANCOIS GONON; M. GUSTAVO MURER

Cortico-subcortical Dynamics in Parkinson’s Disease

Humana Press & Springer Editorials

Año: 2009;

Over the last years, several models of basal ganglia operation have been proposed. However, it is still not clear how do the functional changes that follow dopamine depletion arise and how do they contribute to the main clinical manifestations of Parkinson’s disease. Recent studies in rats have provided valuable information regarding these questions using the cortical states induced by anesthesia and electrical cortical stimulation as tools to study the behavior of the basal ganglia network during periods of sustained and phasic cortical activity or silence. On the whole, they support that dopamine depletion enables an exaggerated transmission of cortical information through the striato-pallidal axis in a wide range of frequencies. These findings are in agreement with the predictions of the classical striatal imbalance model if we adapt the time and space window through which we look at the data.