{"id":140102,"date":"2025-05-29T01:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T01:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/140102\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T01:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T01:01:11","slug":"brain-neurons-act-like-traffic-lights-to-control-every-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/140102\/","title":{"rendered":"Brain Neurons Act Like Traffic Lights to Control Every Move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Summary: <\/strong>New research reveals that neurons in the basal ganglia not only initiate movement but also suppress it with remarkable precision, challenging the traditional view that they merely act as a brake. Scientists studying mice found that individual neurons in the Substantia Nigra pars reticulata (SNr) switch dynamically between activation and inhibition based on the phase of a movement.<\/p>\n<p>These SNr signals work like traffic lights, allowing complex behaviors to emerge from precisely timed combinations of \u201cgo\u201d and \u201cstop\u201d instructions. The findings could reshape treatments for disorders like Parkinson\u2019s, where this balance of movement control breaks down.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Dynamic Signaling:<\/strong> SNr neurons dynamically increase or decrease activity depending on specific movement phases like reach, grasp, or retract.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Traffic Light Model:<\/strong> The basal ganglia output works like a fine-tuned traffic control system, licensing or blocking individual movements in real time.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Therapeutic Insight:<\/strong> Findings may lead to better treatments for movement disorders like Parkinson\u2019s by targeting precise timing mechanisms in motor control.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong>University of Basel<\/p>\n<p><strong>Neurons deep in the brain not only help to initiate movement\u2014they also actively suppress it, and with astonishing precision. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is the conclusion of a new study by researchers at the University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), published in the journal\u00a0Nature.<\/p>\n<p>The findings are especially relevant for better understanding neurological disorders such as Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<p>  <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/brain-movement-neuroscience.jpg\" alt=\"This shows a brain.\"  \/> This study focuses on the so-called Substantia Nigra pars reticulata (SNr), the main output station of the basal ganglia, which sends signals to motor centers in the brainstem. Credit: Neuroscience News<\/p>\n<p>Reaching for an apple or bringing a spoon to the mouth\u2014these seemingly simple actions rely on highly complex processes in the brain. A key player in this orchestration is a deep-seated brain region known as the basal ganglia.<\/p>\n<p>For a long time, the output signal of the basal ganglia was thought to function mainly as a brake, suppressing unwanted behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers led by Professor Silvia Arber have now shown in mice that specific neurons in the basal ganglia make highly precise decisions about when to allow and when to actively stop a specific movement. Together, these dynamic signals license the timing of movement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Basal ganglia: A central switchboard<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These insights challenge the long-standing model of how the basal ganglia work. According to the traditional view, the basal ganglia control movement by continuously inhibiting motor centers in the brain, only briefly \u201creleasing the brake\u201d when a movement is allowed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut this model falls far short in terms of complex movements, such as those involved in coordinated actions of the arms and hands,\u201d explains Arber.<\/p>\n<p>This study focuses on the so-called Substantia Nigra pars reticulata (SNr), the main output station of the basal ganglia, which sends signals to motor centers in the brainstem.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers made a surprising discovery: the neurons in this region don\u2019t merely fire to inhibit movement. Instead, they display highly dynamic activity patterns \u2014precisely timed to the movements being executed.<\/p>\n<p>During complex behaviors, SNr neurons switch multiple times between increased and decreased activity, each neuron with its specific dynamic pattern.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, the output of the basal ganglia functions like a finely tuned system of traffic lights at a busy intersection: each light turns green or red for specific movements, depending on the action that is planned.<\/p>\n<p>In this way, complex behaviors can be built from individual movements, governed by the timing of these \u201cgo\u201d and \u201cstop\u201d signals provided by SNr neurons.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fine-grained movement control<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To investigate these processes, two of Arber\u2019s doctoral students recorded brain activity in mice as these used their hands to reach for food pellets.<\/p>\n<p>They found that individual SNr neurons responded very differently depending on the movement phase: when the arm reached, the hand grasped, or was retracted, specific neurons increased their activity while others paused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how finely tuned these signals are,\u201d Antonio Falasconi and Harsh Kanodia, the study\u2019s lead authors, agree.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSNr neurons only pause their activity during very specific movements and increase it during select others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Using optogenetic techniques, the researchers then manipulated SNr neurons. They were able to show that activating these neurons blocked the behavior\u2014a clear demonstration of their controlling role.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps most strikingly, even the slightest changes in movement were accompanied by precise adjustments in SNr signaling.<\/p>\n<p>Downstream motor centers in the brainstem responded by sending signals back to the SNr. So when the SNr \u201ctraffic light\u201d turned green, the downstream neuron essentially presses the gas pedal, allowing the execution of a movement.<\/p>\n<p>This points to a highly specific, movement-based coding system\u2014far more granular than just a general \u201cgo\u201d or \u201cstop\u201d mechanism.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New avenues for treating movement disorders<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The study offers a vivid picture of how the brain controls even the subtlest movements through a fine-tuned interplay of activation and inhibition\u2014reshaping our understanding of motor control.<\/p>\n<p>This has important medical implications: in disorders like Parkinson\u2019s or chorea, this delicate balance is disrupted, leading to hallmark symptoms such as difficulty initiating movement in Parkinson\u2019s patients.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we understand how the basal ganglia coordinate normal movement, we can develop more targeted treatments when this system goes out of balance,\u201d explains lead researcher Arber.<\/p>\n<p>About this neuroscience research news<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Author: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/neurosciencenews.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#47262920222b2e2c26692d26242825340732292e25263469242f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Angelika Jacobs<\/a><br \/><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/unibas.ch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">University of Basel<\/a><br \/><strong>Contact: <\/strong>Angelika Jacobs \u2013 University of Basel<br \/><strong>Image: <\/strong>The image is credited to Neuroscience News<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffffe8\"><strong>Original Research: <\/strong>Open access.<br \/>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-025-09066-z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dynamic basal ganglia output signals license and suppress forelimb movements<\/a>\u201d by Silvia Arber et al. Nature<\/p>\n<p><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dynamic basal ganglia output signals license and suppress forelimb movements<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The basal ganglia are fundamental to motor control and their dysfunction is linked to motor deficits.<\/p>\n<p>Influential investigations on the primate oculomotor system posited that movement generally depends on transient pauses of tonically firing inhibitory basal ganglia output neurons releasing brainstem motor centres.<\/p>\n<p>However, prominent increases in basal ganglia output neuron firing observed during other motor tasks cast doubts on the proposed mechanisms of movement regulation through basal ganglia circuitry.<\/p>\n<p>Here we show that basal ganglia output neurons in the mouse substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) represent complex forelimb movements with highly granular and dynamic changes in spiking activity, tiling task execution at the population level.<\/p>\n<p>Single SNr neurons exhibit movement-specific firing pauses as well as increases, each occurring in concert with precise and different forelimb movements.<\/p>\n<p>Combining optogenetics and simultaneous recordings from basal ganglia output and postsynaptic brainstem neurons, we reveal the functional role of these dynamic firing-rate changes in releasing and suppressing movement through downstream targets.<\/p>\n<p>Together, our results demonstrate the existence and function of highly specific and temporally precise movement representations in basal ganglia output circuitry.<\/p>\n<p>We propose a model in which basal ganglia output neurons fire dynamically to provide granular and bidirectional movement-specific signals for release and suppression of motor programs to downstream circuits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary: New research reveals that neurons in the basal ganglia not only initiate movement but also suppress it&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[215,105,22662,219,220,16,15,41144],"class_list":{"0":"post-140102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-brain-research","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-movement","11":"tag-neurobiology","12":"tag-neuroscience","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-university-of-basel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114588423550580941","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}