STRIATUM · Corticostriatal and Intrastriatal Neuronal Microcircuits Involved in Motor-Control

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Project objective

The basal ganglia are a group of sub-cortical brain nuclei involved in motor related tasks such as motor planning, selection, and execution, as well as in a variety of cognitive functions such as attention and memory. Malfunctions of basal ganglia are related to diseases and disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington disease, Tourette's syndrome, and others.The input layer of the basal ganglia is the striatum, consisting mainly of GABAergic spiny neurons, which project to the other basal ganglia nuclei via direct and indirect pathways. These pathways are believed to be crucial for selection and execution of motor tasks. The striatum receives most of its excitatory input from various cortical areas, via the corticostriatal pathway. Despite the vast anatomical knowledge of the striatum and the corticostriatal pathway, little is known about the intrastriatal and corticostriatal microcircuit properties. In this study I will use multi-neuron patch-clamp recordings combined with retrograde fluorescent labelling, morphological 3D reconstruction and single-cell RT-PCR, to obtain a detailed description of the electrophysiological, morphological, and synaptic properties of the intrastriatal and corticostriatal microcircuitry.The aim of this study is to obtain fundamentally new insights about the functional organization of the striatum and its cortical afferents, and the way they participate in motor control and selection of behaviour. The study will therefore also have direct bearing on the understanding of basal ganglia-related disorders.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• KAROLINSKA INSTITUTE, STOCKHOLM, SWEDENCoordinatorCity levelSweden

Links

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