Deep Brain Signals

Deep inside the vertebrate brain are the thalamus and basal ganglia, two clusters of neurons (called nuclei) controlling the electrical circuits in our brain that dictate when and how we move our limbs. When either are disrupted, for example in Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, we lose our ability to make appropriate and controlled movements. Scientists investigated precisely how neural information needed to make movements are organised in these areas, focusing on the thalamus’ parafascicular nucleus (PF). They tracked signals and connections originating from neurons in the inner (blue), middle (purple) and outer (yellow) PF as they travelled through the mouse brain and found that each region carries distinct information required for motor action to different parts of the brain. Understanding this critical organisation could help ensure that deep brain stimulation used to treat movement disorders like Parkinson’s is targeting the best area of the brain for each patient.

Written by Gaëlle Coullon

Gaëlle Coullon

Writer

Gaëlle is a consultant and trainer in research communication and commercialisation. As an ex-neuroscientist, she is always looking for new ways to combine her love of writing with everything brain related.

• Video from work by Gil Mandelbaum and colleagues
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
• Video/image copyright Elsevier 2019. Reproduced with permission.
• Published in Neuron, May 2019