Research Activities in the Space-DREAM Project

Basal ganglia network in skeletal voluntary movement

The basal ganglia, a group of interconnected brain areas located deep in the cerebral cortex, have proved to be at work in skeletal voluntary movement, learning, the formation of good and bad habits, and some psychiatric and addictive disorders. Our laboratory aims to provide new insights into the principles of operation of the neuronal networks that constitute the basal ganglia by combined morphological, molecular biological or physiological approaches. For example, we employ the viral vectors expressing membrane-targeted green fluorescent protein (GFP) for single neuron tracing, the transgenic animals with the dendritic membrane-targeted GFP or immunohistochemistry of vesicular glutamate transporters to visualize the specific neuronal groups and post-embedding method to discover the receptors at synaptic structures. These techniques help to develop the new approaches to the functional design of the neural circuits. The new knowledge will provide a basis for understanding how the basal ganglia influence cognitive as well as skeletal voluntary movement and how the network or synaptic organization are disrupted in disorders affecting the basal ganglia.