Alcohol and basal ganglia circuitry: Animal models

Basal Ganglia Circuitry and Synaptic Connectivity 1. OVERALL ORGANIZATION OF THE BASAL GANGLIA

THE BASAL GANGLIA CIRCUITRY Proper execution of voluntary movements

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder, in which the capacity to execute voluntary movements is gradually lost. The clinical picture of PD includes t r e m o r, rigidity and bradykinesia. The pathologic hallmark of the disease is the degeneration of melanine-containing, dopaminerg i c neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta, which leads to severe dopaminergi...

Altered functional connectivity of basal ganglia circuitry in dental phobia.

Recent symptom provocation studies that compared patients suffering from dental phobia with healthy controls identified hyperactivation of basal ganglia structures, but none have assessed striatal functional connectivity. We reanalyzed data from a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging study on dental phobia. Patients (20 men, 25 women) and healthy controls (18 men, 23 women) had been e...

Pathophysiology of the basal ganglia and movement disorders: from animal models to human clinical applications.

Electrophysiological studies in control and MPTP treated primates have played a major role in our understanding of the physiology of the basal ganglia and the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease (PD). Early models emphasized discharge rate and viewed the basal ganglia as a network of boxes (nuclei) connected by excitatory or inhibitory connections. More recent studies view the basal ganglia ...

Computational models of the basal ganglia.

Computer simulation studies and mathematical analysis of models of the basal ganglia are being used increasingly to explore theories of basal ganglia function. We review the implications of these new models for a general understanding of basal ganglia function in normal as well as in diseased brains. The focus is on their functional similarities rather than on the details of mathematical method...