The critical role played by the basal ganglia in the pathogenesis of
various movement disorders such as Parkinson's and Huntington's
diseases has been known for many years.
Recent studies have indicated that the neural networks of the basal
ganglia participate in everyday complex behaviors that require
coordination between cognition, motivation and movements.
Our research is therefore aimed at both directions. First, we try to
provide better understanding of the role and way of action of the
basal ganglia-cortical networks in normal behavior, and secondly we
are studying these networks following the induction of clinical
disorders such as Parkinson's disease and dyskinesia.
Our group is the only group worldwide that has been able to record
the simultaneous activity of several neurons in the basal ganglia of
awake, normal, Parkinsonian and dyskinetic monkeys and to combine
this data with insights from the field of neural networks and
computational neuroscience. Our belief is that only through such
broad and interdisciplinary understanding we will be able to provide
better methods for diagnosis, follow-up and therapy of these common
devastating human diseases.
Exclusively for lab members: Go to the Links
section and enter our Journal club resources folder.
Bergman H., Wichmann T. and DeLong M.R. Reversal of Experimental
Parkinsonism by Lesions of the Subthalamic Nucleus. Science
249: 1436-1438, 1990
Raz, A., Feingold, A., Zelanskaya V., and Bergman H. Neuronal
synchronization of tonically active neurons in the striatum of
normal and Parkinsonian primates. Journal of Neurophysiology
76(3): 2083-2088, 1996
A. Raz, E. Vaadia and H. Bergman. Firing patterns and correlations
of spontaneous discharge of pallidal neurons in the normal and
tremulous MPTP Vervet model of Parkinsonism. Journal of Neuroscience
20(22): 8559-8571, 2000
Izhar Bar-Gad, Genela Morris and Hagai Bergman, Information
processing, dimensionality reduction and reinforcement learning in
the basal ganglia; Progress in Neurobiology 71(6), 439-473,
2003
Genela Morris, David Arkadir, Alon Nevet, Eilon Vaadia and Hagai
Bergman, Coincident but distinct messages of midbrain dopamine and
striatal tonically active neurons, Neuron 43: 133-143, 2004
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