The Function and role of Basal Ganglia pathways: From single to multiple loops

German - Japanese Collaboration in Computational Neuroscience funded by DFG and JST

Project

Basal ganglia contribute to a variety of cognitive and motor functions and these functions′ establishment through trial-and-error learning. With cortex and thalamus, they build an architecture of parallel but interacting loops. Guided by predictions of an existing computational model of cortico-basalganglio-thalamo-cortical processing (Schroll, Vitay & Hamker, 2012; Schroll, Vitay & Hamker, 2014), we will perform electrophysiological experiments to solve two important yet unresolved empirical questions:

1) How does the external segment of the globus pallidus contribute to basal ganglia processing and

2) How do separate basal ganglia loops that support motor planning and motor execution interact coherently?

Based on our empirical findings, we will then extend the computational model to fully capture basal ganglia connectivity both within and between loops. Towards a clinical perspective, we will afterwards systematically apply lesions and functional alterations to this model and study their effects on overt model behavior in a set of cognitive and motor tasks. At the same time, we will apply these same tasks to patients of basal ganglia disorders (e.g. dystonia, Huntington′s disease, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Tourette′s syndrome and essential tremor).