"Effect of proprioceptive modulation on pallidal physiology in cervical dystonia"
Presenter: Prajakta Jodi
Location: NORD 400 and hybrid (see link below)
Abstract - "Cervical dystonia (CD) is a movement disorder that affects around one million people worldwide, and current treatments aim to modify proprioception, a sense that can be disrupted in dystonia. While traditionally thought to be a disorder of the basal ganglia, recent studies suggest that the cerebellum may also be involved in dystonia development. This study aimed to examine the effect of high-frequency neck vibration on pallidal physiology in CD and how this information is integrated into the downstream motor circuit that includes the cerebellum. The results showed that neck vibration instantaneously altered the pallidal single neuron activity, increasing the regularity of firing. In isolated CD, the effects were prominent on neck-sensitive neurons, while in CD as part of generalized dystonia, the vibration also affected the firing regularity of non-neck-sensitive neurons. Neck vibration also modulated pallido-cerebellar and pallido-hippocampal connectivity in CD patients, with differences in modulation between the basal ganglia and cerebellum in the two types of dystonia suggesting compromised communication between these structures. The study sheds light on the mechanism of proprioceptive modulation in CD, suggests the effects of this therapy may be mediated through different neural circuits, and highlights the importance of burst neurons in dystonia and their potential role in developing new therapies for the disorder."