Abstract: We review the contributions of biologically constrained computational models to our understanding of motor and cognitive deficits in Parkinson’s disease (PD). The loss of dopaminergic neurons innervating the striatum in PD, and the well-established role of dopamine (DA) in reinforcement

Recent models based, in part on a study of Huntington’s disease, suggest that the basal ganglia are involved in on-line movement guidance. Two experiments were conducted to investigate this idea. First, we studied advanced Parkinson’s disease patients performing a reaching task known to depend

Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and normal controls were administered a series of visual attention tasks. The Dimensional Integration task required integration of information from two stimulus dimensions. The Selective Attention task required selective attention to one stimulus dimension while

ganglia are im- pointing responses (Petrides and Milner 1982; Wiegersma portant in cognitive aspects of serial order in behavior. We present et al. 1990), serial-order recognition (Kesner et al. 1994), a modular neural network model of these areas that encodes the serial order of events into spatial

Advances in genetic methods have enabled the study of genes involved in human neurodegenerative diseases using Drosophila as a model system 1. Most of these diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease are characterized by age-dependent deterioration

The authors hypothesized that the pathophysiology of early Parkinson's disease (PD) may selectively target structures that support visual working memory for spatial relations but leave structures that support working memory for featural characteristics of objects relatively intact Fifteen PD

was thus aimed at blocking these receptors in a 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) model of Parkinson’s disease in the rat. Considering the prominent expression of mGluR5, we have used the selective mGluR5 antagonist 2-methyl-6-(phenylethynyl)-pyridine (MPEP) to target these receptors. In rats trained to quickly

The basal ganglia play a crucial role in the execution of movements, as demonstrated by the severe motor defi-cits that accompany the neuronal degeneration under-lying Parkinson’s disease (PD). Since motor commands originate from the cortex, an important functional question is how the basal ganglia

Abstract. Parkinson’s disease is characterized by motor deficits caused by loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. Neurotrophic factors and cell transplantation have partially restored function in models of Parkinson’s disease, but have had limited effects in humans. Here we show

It is well known that perception and estimation of time are fundamental for the relationship between humans and their environment. However, this temporal information processing is inefficient in patients with Parkinson ’ disease (PD), resulting in temporal judgment deficits. In general