Topic: ventrolateral periaqueductal gray

Among symptoms characterizing Parkinson’s disease (PD), freezing of gait (FoG) can become particularly disabling for patients. Anxiety levels have been linked to the severity of FoG, yet in this circumstance, levodopa treatment lacks effectiveness. A better understanding of the neural circuit mechanisms underlying FoG is required for a more targeted approach towards its treatment. To this end, we developed a viral vector (AAV2/9-CreON-A53T-αSyn) mouse model restricting synucleinopathy to local circuit elements, i.e. selected neuron subtypes within specific brain regions in vivo. We validated t

Freezing of Gait (FoG) is a debilitating symptom of Parkinson´s Disease (PD) with unknown neural origin that is characterized by sudden gait disruption. A subgroup of FoG-patients is specifically sensitive to anxiety stimuli and states. Similar behavioral patterns relating anxiety and gait interruption can be found in defensive freezing of rodents where a disinhibitory mechanism within the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) generates gait disruption and subsequent immobility due to threat.Classical rodent behavioral paradigms binarize anxiety states based on clear separation of anxiogen