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Comment
. 2016 Feb 17;89(4):675-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.02.008.

Parkinson's Disease: A Thalamostriatal Rebalancing Act?

Nicolas X Tritsch  1 , Adam G Carter  2
Affiliations
Comment

Parkinson's Disease: A Thalamostriatal Rebalancing Act?

Nicolas X Tritsch et al. Neuron. .

Abstract

Motor impairments in Parkinson's disease are thought to result from hypoactivation of striatal projection neurons in the direct pathway. In this issue of Neuron, Parker et al. (2016) report that dopamine depletion selectively weakens thalamic but not cortical afferents onto these neurons, implicating the thalamus as playing a key role in Parkinsonian motor symptoms.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Synaptic rewiring
Dopamine depletion in a PD mouse model reduces the strength of thalamic inputs (orange) but not cortical inputs (green) onto dSPNs (red) compared to iSPNs (blue) in the striatum, unbalancing the “direct” and “indirect” pathways and thereby reducing movement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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