Dopamine and Movement: Defining Timescales of Modulation
Ever since the discovery that the degeneration of midbrain DA neurons (mDANs) projecting to the striatum underlies bradykinesia (i.e., slowness of movement) in Parkinson’s disease (PD), DA has become synonymous with motor vigor. However, the mechanisms through which DA contributes to the speed and amplitude of individual voluntary movements are still debated. Initial investigations suggested a somewhat slow or permissive role for DA, but recent experiments in rodents proposed a stronger and faster role for DA in the dynamic control of the gain of motor commands. In this presentation, I will describe our attempts at better understanding how dopamine contributes to motor vigor through the study of release patterns, lesions, and optogenetic and pharmacological manipulations. Our findings call into question the widely-held view that phasic fluctuations in extracellular dopamine control the vigor of ongoing movements, constraining the kinds of mechanisms and timescales that dopamine likely acts on to modify behavior.
Date: 10 June 2025, 10:30
Venue: Sherrington Library, off Parks Road OX1 3PT
Venue Details: Sherrington Building
Speaker: Dr Nicolas Tritsch (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Canada)
Organising department: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG)
Organiser contact email address: stephanie.cragg@dpag.ox.ac.uk
Host: Professor Stephanie Cragg (DPAG, University of Oxford)
Part of: Neuroscience Theme Guest Speakers (DPAG)
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Hannah Simm