Circuits and Circuit Disorders of the Basal Ganglia

Abstract

iews of the anatomy and function of the basal ganglia and their role in motor and nonmotor disorders have undergone major revisions during the past decades. The basal ganglia are now appreciated as components of parallel, reentrant cortico-subcortical circuits, which originate from individual cortical areas, traverse the basal ganglia and thalamus, and terminate in their respective areas of origin in the frontal lobe. Further research and clinical experience have resulted in new insights and perspectives on the details of the circuitry and on the role of these structures in Parkinson disease and other basal ganglia disorders. On the basis of anatomical and physiological studies and the striking success of focused surgical interventions, it seems appropriate to view these varied clinical disorders as circuit disorders, resulting from pathologic disturbances in neuronal activity throughout specific cortico-subcortical loops.

Modeling of cerebellar transcranial electrical stimulation effects on hand tremor in Parkinson’s disease

“…This figure shows the oscillators' peak frequencies declined by changing the model mode from the healthy state to the PD state. These results are consistent with decrease of frequency range in PD as mentioned in DeLong and Wichmann (2007).…”

Modeling of cerebellar transcranial electrical stimulation effects on hand tremor in Parkinson’s disease

“…This figure shows the oscillators' peak frequencies declined by changing the model mode from the healthy state to the PD state. These results are consistent with decrease of frequency range in PD as mentioned in DeLong and Wichmann (2007).…”

Peripheral Inflammation Is Associated with Dopaminergic Degeneration in Parkinson's Disease

“…Our results showed that both HY stage (in both cohorts) and MDS‐UPDRS‐III (only in the PPMI replication cohort) were negatively correlated with lower striatal DAT levels, which is in line with previous reports 2,34,35 . Our particular finding was that the highest association was observed for the posterior putamen, which is not surprising as this subregion has functional connections with the frontal eye field, pre‐supplementary motor area, and precentral gyrus 5,33 . Additionally, although the HY stage only showed a trend to a positive association with the NLR, we found that a higher MDS‐UPDRS‐III score was significantly associated with a higher NLR.…”

Cerebral Activations Related to Ballistic, Stepwise Interrupted and Gradually Modulated Movements in Parkinson Patients

“…Reduced activation at various task-specific locations within the striatum is consistent with the classical feature of impaired striatal function in PD. In existing models of PD, such striatal dysfunction induces disinhibition within the BG associated with a disbalance between direct and indirect pathways, resulting in an enhanced inhibitory BG outflow to successively the thalamus and cortex [11], [22], [24], [31], [32], [62], [86]. In the present study, we indeed observed increased pallidal activations in PD during movement initiation, which is consistent with these models.…”

“…Here, activation of the lateral prefrontal cortex related to full movement inhibition, is in accordance with other studies on movement inhibition [5], [18], [69], [70]. From the characteristics of abrupt movement changes in the stepwise task one might infer that this task does not require an elaborate routing within the striatum for gating cortical information into direct and indirect basal ganglia pathways [24], [71], [72], because such striatal gating is particularly expected in association with the modulatory role of the pallidum in movement selection based on partial inhibition [73]. The latter is the case in the circle task, which indeed recruited BG activations in pallidum and (dorsal) anterior striatum, without activations in either STN or SN.…”

Modeling of cerebellar transcranial electrical stimulation effects on hand tremor in Parkinson’s disease

“…This figure shows the oscillators' peak frequencies declined by changing the model mode from the healthy state to the PD state. These results are consistent with decrease of frequency range in PD as mentioned in DeLong and Wichmann (2007).…”

Peripheral Inflammation Is Associated with Dopaminergic Degeneration in Parkinson's Disease

“…Our results showed that both HY stage (in both cohorts) and MDS‐UPDRS‐III (only in the PPMI replication cohort) were negatively correlated with lower striatal DAT levels, which is in line with previous reports 2,34,35 . Our particular finding was that the highest association was observed for the posterior putamen, which is not surprising as this subregion has functional connections with the frontal eye field, pre‐supplementary motor area, and precentral gyrus 5,33 . Additionally, although the HY stage only showed a trend to a positive association with the NLR, we found that a higher MDS‐UPDRS‐III score was significantly associated with a higher NLR.…”

Cerebral Activations Related to Ballistic, Stepwise Interrupted and Gradually Modulated Movements in Parkinson Patients

“…Reduced activation at various task-specific locations within the striatum is consistent with the classical feature of impaired striatal function in PD. In existing models of PD, such striatal dysfunction induces disinhibition within the BG associated with a disbalance between direct and indirect pathways, resulting in an enhanced inhibitory BG outflow to successively the thalamus and cortex [11], [22], [24], [31], [32], [62], [86]. In the present study, we indeed observed increased pallidal activations in PD during movement initiation, which is consistent with these models.…”

“…Here, activation of the lateral prefrontal cortex related to full movement inhibition, is in accordance with other studies on movement inhibition [5], [18], [69], [70]. From the characteristics of abrupt movement changes in the stepwise task one might infer that this task does not require an elaborate routing within the striatum for gating cortical information into direct and indirect basal ganglia pathways [24], [71], [72], because such striatal gating is particularly expected in association with the modulatory role of the pallidum in movement selection based on partial inhibition [73]. The latter is the case in the circle task, which indeed recruited BG activations in pallidum and (dorsal) anterior striatum, without activations in either STN or SN.…”

Modeling of cerebellar transcranial electrical stimulation effects on hand tremor in Parkinson’s disease

“…This figure shows the oscillators' peak frequencies declined by changing the model mode from the healthy state to the PD state. These results are consistent with decrease of frequency range in PD as mentioned in DeLong and Wichmann (2007).…”

Peripheral Inflammation Is Associated with Dopaminergic Degeneration in Parkinson's Disease

“…Our results showed that both HY stage (in both cohorts) and MDS‐UPDRS‐III (only in the PPMI replication cohort) were negatively correlated with lower striatal DAT levels, which is in line with previous reports 2,34,35 . Our particular finding was that the highest association was observed for the posterior putamen, which is not surprising as this subregion has functional connections with the frontal eye field, pre‐supplementary motor area, and precentral gyrus 5,33 . Additionally, although the HY stage only showed a trend to a positive association with the NLR, we found that a higher MDS‐UPDRS‐III score was significantly associated with a higher NLR.…”

Cerebral Activations Related to Ballistic, Stepwise Interrupted and Gradually Modulated Movements in Parkinson Patients

“…Reduced activation at various task-specific locations within the striatum is consistent with the classical feature of impaired striatal function in PD. In existing models of PD, such striatal dysfunction induces disinhibition within the BG associated with a disbalance between direct and indirect pathways, resulting in an enhanced inhibitory BG outflow to successively the thalamus and cortex [11], [22], [24], [31], [32], [62], [86]. In the present study, we indeed observed increased pallidal activations in PD during movement initiation, which is consistent with these models.…”

“…Here, activation of the lateral prefrontal cortex related to full movement inhibition, is in accordance with other studies on movement inhibition [5], [18], [69], [70]. From the characteristics of abrupt movement changes in the stepwise task one might infer that this task does not require an elaborate routing within the striatum for gating cortical information into direct and indirect basal ganglia pathways [24], [71], [72], because such striatal gating is particularly expected in association with the modulatory role of the pallidum in movement selection based on partial inhibition [73]. The latter is the case in the circle task, which indeed recruited BG activations in pallidum and (dorsal) anterior striatum, without activations in either STN or SN.…”