TopicNeuro

parafascicular

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SeminarNeuroscience

Targeting thalamic circuits rescues motor and mood deficits in PD mice

Dheeraj Roy
Feng Lab, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Feb 1, 2023

Although bradykinesia, tremor, and rigidity are hallmark motor defects in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, they also experience motor learning impairments and non-motor symptoms such as depression. The neural basis for these different PD symptoms are not well understood. While current treatments are effective for locomotion deficits in PD, therapeutic strategies targeting motor learning deficits and non-motor symptoms are lacking. We found that distinct parafascicular (PF) thalamic subpopulations project to caudate putamen (CPu), subthalamic nucleus (STN), and nucleus accumbens (NAc). While PF-->CPu and PF-->STN circuits are critical for locomotion and motor learning respectively, inhibition of the PF-->NAc circuit induced a depression-like state. While chemogenetically manipulating CPu-projecting PF neurons led to a long-term restoration of locomotion, optogenetic long-term potentiation at PF-->STN synapses restored motor learning behavior in PD model mice. Furthermore, activation of NAc-projecting PF neurons rescued depression-like PD phenotypes. Importantly, we identified nicotinic acetylcholine receptors capable of modulating PF circuits to rescue different PD phenotypes. Thus, targeting PF thalamic circuits may be an effective strategy for treating motor and non-motor deficits in PD.

ePosterNeuroscience

Investigating the role of the subparafascicular thalamic nucleus in the processing of soft touch sensation in mice

Konstantina Ioneskou, Betul Gündogdu, Alexander Stjernvall, Sara Simfors, Line Löken

FENS Forum 2024

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