QBI Special Seminar: Perspective for in-vivo characterization of basal ganglia loops

Event Details

Date:

Friday, 05 February 2016 - Friday, 05 February 2016

Time:

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Room:

QBI Level 7 Auditorium

UQ Location:

Queensland Brain Institute (St Lucia)

URL:

http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/neuroscience-seminars

Event category(s):

Full Description:: Professor Marc Tittgemeyer, Group Leader, Translational Neurocircuitry Group, Max-Planck-Institute (MPI) for Metabolism Research, Cologne, Germany

Title: Perspective for in-vivo characterization of basal ganglia loops

Abstract:
The tight interconnections between basal ganglia, thalamus and cortex are generally summarized as basal ganglia-cortex loops. They are key-structures for communication in the human brain. Basal ganglia-cortex loops are important in the performance and control of movements, in cognitive tasks, but also in emotional processing.

For our understanding of how cortical-basal ganglia circuitry is affecting diseases like movement disorders or, for instance, reward processing and impulsive behaviour, the anatomical knowledge of basal ganglia-cortex interaction is of utmost importance. However, neuroanatomical studies using transneuronal virus tracers in macaque monkeys recently demonstrated that these interactions could be by far more complex than previously assumed; amongst an almost classical direct and indirect system of information transfer various satellite systems are discussed, including a substantial interaction with the cerebellum. To what extent these interactions are present in the human brain remains unclear. In the talk, I will discuss how to obtain quantitative in vivo markers of connection strength within cortical-basal ganglia circuitry and how these may predict individual expressions of disease symptoms.