The Cortico-Basal Ganglia Interactions Group
The research lab of Associate Professor Mattias Rickhag has established strong expertise in cellular neuroscience and viral modulation platforms for studying cortico-basal ganglia circuits in health and disease.
We implement state-of-the-art genetic and viral-based tool allowing cell-type specific manipulations of cortical neuronal subsets to causally dissect these neural circuits and its relation to behavior using animal models. By use of engineered receptors (chemogenetics) and light-activated ion channels (optogenetics) in transgenic mouse models, we are able to target specific neuronal subsets and perturb their activity and correlate with behavioral outcomes.
In parallel, we use pharmacological and toxin-based models of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in mice to mimic key motor symptomatology and whether targeted circuit modulation can reduce PD motor symptoms. It is the ambition that our research will fill major knowledge gaps regarding the involvement of cortico-basal ganglia systems for the genesis of parkinsonian motor symptoms and how to target them. Thus, we provide a strong link between preclinical and clinical research at DRCMR framing an interdisciplinary environment research that will yield mechanistic insights for how the motor cortex communicates with the basal ganglia to govern motor behavior.
Key Projects
- Role of Cortico-striatal projection systems in dopaminergic dyskinesias - supported by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, US
- ADAptive and Precise brain-circuit Targeting in Parkinson’s disease (ADAPT-PD) - supported by the Lundbeck Foundation
