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Transmission of delta band (0.5-4 Hz) oscillations from the globus pallidus to the substantia nigra pars reticulata in dopamine depletion

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Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) and animal models of PD feature enhanced oscillations in several frequency bands in the basal ganglia (BG). Past research has emphasized the enhancement of 13-30 Hz beta oscillations. Recently, however, oscillations in the delta band (0.5-4 Hz) have been identified as a robust predictor of dopamine loss and motor dysfunction in several BG regions in mouse models of PD. In particular, delta oscillations in the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) were shown to lead oscillations in motor cortex (M1) and persist under M1 lesion, but it is not clear where these oscillations are initially generated. In this paper, we use a computational model to study how delta oscillations may arise in the SNr due to projections from the globus pallidus externa (GPe). We propose a network architecture that incorporates inhibition in SNr from oscillating GPe neurons and other SNr neurons. In our simulations, this configuration yields firing patterns in model SNr neurons that match those measured in vivo. In particular, we see the spontaneous emergence of near-antiphase active-predicting and inactive-predicting neural populations in the SNr, which persist under the inclusion of STN inputs based on experimental recordings. These results demonstrate how delta oscillations can propagate through BG nuclei despite imperfect oscillatory synchrony in the source site, narrowing down potential targets for the source of delta oscillations in PD models and giving new insight into the dynamics of SNr oscillations.

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Data availability

No new data was utlized in this work.

Code availability

Computational model and analysis code is currently available at the following site: https://github.com/jparker25/Whalen_et_al_2021

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Acknowledgements

We thank Ryan Phillips for providing the C++ code upon which our biophysical model was based and for helpful discussions regarding our changes and tuning of the finished model. We also thank Charles J. Wilson for suggesting the comparison with the integrate-and-fire model.

Funding

This work was partially supported by NSF award DMS 1951095 (JER) and by NIH awards R01DA053014 (JER), R01NS125914 (JER/AHG), R01NS101016 (AHG), R01NS104835 (AHG), and F31NS101821 (TCW).

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  1. Timothy C. Whalen

    Present address: Design Interactive, Inc., Orlando, FL, United States

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

    Timothy C. Whalen, John E. Parker & Jonathan E. Rubin

  2. Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

    Timothy C. Whalen & Aryn H. Gittis

  3. Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

    Timothy C. Whalen, John E. Parker, Aryn H. Gittis & Jonathan E. Rubin

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  1. Timothy C. Whalen
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Whalen, T.C., Parker, J.E., Gittis, A.H. et al. Transmission of delta band (0.5-4 Hz) oscillations from the globus pallidus to the substantia nigra pars reticulata in dopamine depletion. J Comput Neurosci 51, 361–380 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10827-023-00853-z

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