Parkinsonian motor deficits are associated with elevated inhibitory output from the basal ganglia (BG). However, several features of Parkinson's disease (PD) have not been accounted for by this simple "classical rate model" framework, including the observation in patients with PD that movements guided by external stimuli are less impaired than otherwise identical movements generated based on internal goals. Is this difference due to divergent processing within the BG itself or due to the recruitment of extra-BG pathways by sensory processing? In addition, surprisingly little is known about precisely when, in the sequence from selecting to executing movements, BG output is altered by PD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol
August 2019
Evaluate the association between school-based treatment of substance use disorders and academic outcomes by developing a system of simple and easily tracked academic performance metrics coinciding with an established substance use treatment program. This study provided treatment to 75 high school students enrolled without exclusion who voluntarily sought care for substance use disorders. Participants were enrolled in a 12-week program of individual motivational interviewing, acceptance and commitment therapy, family sessions, case management, contingency management, and psychiatric consultation at school-based health centers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSelecting and moving to spatial targets are critical components of goal-directed behavior, yet their neural bases are not well understood. The superior colliculus (SC) is thought to contain a topographic map of contralateral space in which the activity of specific neuronal populations corresponds to particular spatial locations. However, these spatial representations are modulated by several decision-related variables, suggesting that they reflect information beyond simply the location of an upcoming movement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHow movements are selected is a fundamental question in systems neuroscience. While many studies have elucidated the sensorimotor transformations underlying stimulus-guided movements, less is known about how internal goals - critical drivers of goal-directed behavior - guide movements. The basal ganglia are known to bias movement selection according to value, one form of internal goal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA fundamental goal of systems neuroscience is to understand the neural mechanisms underlying decision making. The midbrain superior colliculus (SC) is known to be central to the selection of one among many potential spatial targets for movements, which represents an important form of decision making that is tractable to rigorous experimental investigation. In this review, we first discuss data from mammalian models-including primates, cats, and rodents-that inform our understanding of how neural activity in the SC underlies the selection of targets for movements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
September 2011
Acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) quorum sensing controls gene expression in hundreds of Proteobacteria including a number of plant and animal pathogens. Generally, the AHL receptors are members of a family of related transcription factors, and although they have been targets for development of antivirulence therapeutics there is very little structural information about this class of bacterial receptors. We have determined the structure of the transcription factor, QscR, bound to N-3-oxo-dodecanoyl-homoserine lactone from the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa at a resolution of 2.
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