Topic: intralaminar thalamic nuclei

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by motor and vocal tics, which are sudden, rapid, recurrent, non-rhythmic movements. The TS is also accompanied by cognitive and emotional dysfunctions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Dysfunction of the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits has been suggested to induce these symptoms in TS patients, but the details of neuronal mechanisms underlying tic disorders remain unknown. In this study, we generated drug-induced tic model mice by unilateral local

Highly specialized subcortical motor networks govern movement and locomotion. The cortico-basal ganglia (BG)-thalamocortical loop is crucial for movement control, and disruption of BG activity leads to unilateral rotation.We investigated whether the pontine reticular formation (PRF) also participates in a motor-related, cortico-subcortico-thalamocortical loop since PRF sends inhibitory terminals to the intralaminar thalamic nuclei (IL) and parafascicular nucleus (Pf), like BG, both in rodents and humans. We studied the effects of unilateral optogenetic activation of PRF inhibitory cells (PRF/G