Analysis of Striatal Activity and Parkinson's Behavior In Vivo

The loss of ventral midbrain dopamine neurons in Parkinson's disease (PD) is widely understood to underlie the motor disorder components, including sensorimotor behaviors. PD patients exhibit deficits in these behaviors, which are only partially normalized by L-DOPA 1. To better understand the mechanisms of these behaviors and their modulation by dopamine, I will use new fiber photometry measurement techniques during a sensorimotor task in a mouse model to define the roles of the striatal spiny projection neurons (SPNs) that express D1 and D2 dopamine receptors during the behavior. In conjunction with Avery McGuirt, an advanced PhD student in the Sulzer lab, I will determine the precise steps required in the corridor task by measuring SPN activity following unilateral depletion of dopamine innervation and after treatment with L-DOPA, and so provide a basis for understanding the synaptic basis for the loss of these functions in PD patients.