The beta oscillation conditions in a simplified basal ganglia network

Cogn Neurodyn. 2019 Apr;13(2):201-217. doi: 10.1007/s11571-018-9514-0. Epub 2018 Dec 4.

Abstract

Parkinson's disease is a type of motor dysfunction disease that is induced mainly by abnormal interactions between the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and globus pallidus (GP) neurons. Periodic oscillatory activities with frequencies of 13-30 Hz are the main physiological characteristics of Parkinson's disease. In this paper, we built a class of STN-GP networks to explore beta oscillation conditions. A theoretical formula was obtained for generating oscillations without internal GP connections. Based on this formula, we studied the effects of cortex inputs, striatum inputs, coupling weights and delays on oscillation conditions, and the theoretical results are in good agreement with the numerical results. The onset mechanism can be explained by the model, and the internal GP connection has little effect on oscillations. Finally, we compared oscillation conditions with those in previous studies and found that the delays and coupling weights required for generating oscillations may decrease as the number of nuclei increases. We hope that the results obtained will inspire future theoretical and experimental studies.

Keywords: Beta oscillation conditions; Globus pallidus; Parkinson’s disease; Subthalamic nucleus.