Big data brain mapping could lead to novel therapies for Parkinson’s

Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC; CA, USA) have mapped the dorsal striatum, an area in the frontal lobe that is associated with motor learning. By mapping individual neurons and synapses in this previously relatively unexplored region, they hope to gain a better understanding of the circuitry that underlies diseases such as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and autism, with the aim of facilitating novel therapies in the future. In the study, published in Nature Neuroscience, the team injected fluorescent molecules into specific locations in the mouse brain and used a high-resolution microscope to map the molecules’ movement. The researchers were...