Imbalanced basal ganglia connectivity is associated with motor deficits and apathy in Huntington's disease.

ABSTRACT: The gating of movement depends on activity within the cortico-striato-thalamic loops. Within these loops, emerging from the cells of the striatum, run two opponent pathways-the direct and indirect basal ganglia pathways. Both are complex and polysynaptic, but the overall effect of activity within these pathways is thought to encourage and inhibit movement, respectively. In Huntington's disease, the preferential early loss of striatal neurons forming the indirect pathway is thought to lead to disinhibition, giving rise to the characteristic motor features of the condition. But early Huntington's disease is also associated with apathy, a loss of motivation and failure to engage in goal-directed movement. We hypothesized that in Huntington's disease, motor signs and apathy may be selectively

SUBMITTER: Nair A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9050569 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature