Brain rewiring in Parkinson's disease may contribute to abnormal movement
The study suggests the loss of dopamine may cause the brain to rewire in a maladaptive manner, contributing to impaired movement in Parkinson's disease. These findings also suggest that there are fundamental problems with scientists' traditional model of Parkinson's disease, said senior author Mark Bevan, PhD, professor of Physiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The prevailing consensus was that excessive patterning of the subthalamic nucleus (STN), a component of the basal ganglia, by the cerebral cortex was linked to the symptomatic expression of Parkinson's disease, including muscle rigidity and slowness of movement, according to Bevan. "When one saw a burst of activity in the cortex that was consistently followed by an abnormal burst of activity in the STN, scientists assumed that the direct connection between the two was responsible," Bevan said. Thus, Bevan and his colleagues, including lead author Hong-Yuan Chu, PhD, a...