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Research Group: Basal Ganglia Physiology



[head of group:]
	Christian Moll, MD

[group members:]
	Dr.phil. Andrew Sharott Postdoc,
	Dipl.Psych. Alessandro Gulberti Ph.D. candidate,
	Cand.med. Benjamin Grieb Doctoral candidate,
	Cand.med. Constantin von Nicolai Doctoral candidate,
	Dr.rer.nat. Gerhard Engler Adjunct member,

[equipment / methods:]
	Intraoperative microphysiology during surgery for movement disorders (therapeutic deep brain stimulation) Multielectrode-recordings: units and local field potentials Electroencephalograhy (EEG) Electromyography (EMG) Advanced time series analysis Experimental models of parkinsonism and tremor Behaviour and chronic recordings Experimental deep brain stimulation (DBS) Histology of the diseased basal ganglia Immunohistochemistry
[research topics:]
	Cellular pathophysiology of movement disorders Oscillatory activity in the healthy and diseased basal ganglia Cellular pathophysiology of Parkinson´s disease, essential tremor and dystonia History of basal ganglia physiology
[Cellular pathophysiology of movement disorders:]


[Oscillatory activity in the healthy and diseased basal ganglia:]
	Physiological neuronal oscillations in the central nervous system cover a broad range of frequencies: from slow sleep oscillations (<2Hz) up to fast oscillatory activity in the gamma frequency range (>40Hz). These high frequent oscillations subserve a key function for physiological information processing in the healthy motor system. However, disturbances in this network, encompassing motor cortical, thalamic and basal ganglia structures, lead to pathological alterations of neuronal activity that result in the well known clinical pictures of movement disorders. We are interested in the role of such oscillatory activity in the pathogenesis of these disorders.

[Cellular pathophysiology of Parkinson´s disease, essential tremor and dystonia:]
	Pathophysiological models are derived mainly from laboratory studies. Translational research is important, since aninmal models do not fully mimic the variety of clinical phenotypes observed in human extrapyramidal disorders. However, direct access to human depth structures is limited to neurosurgical interventions. To this end, intraoperative microelectrode recordings (iMER) allow unique close-up processes of the pathophysiological alterations at a single cell level in the diseased basal ganglia. iMER increase the precision of electrode implantations for deep brain stimulation (DBS).

[History of basal ganglia physiology:]


[collaborators:]
	Johannes Sarnthein, University of Zuerich, Dpt. of Neurosurgery Peter Brown, University College London, Institute of Neurology Volker Tronnier, University of Luebeck, Dpt. of Neurosurgery Bartosz Zurowski, University of Luebeck, Dpt. of Psychiatry Andreas Kordon, University of Luebeck, Dpt. of Psychiatry Ulrich Hofmann, University of Luebeck, Dpt. of Signal Processing Alexander Münchau, University of Hamburg, Dpt. of Neurology Wolfgang Hamel, University of Hamburg, Dpt. of Neurosurgery

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Research Group:Basal Ganglia Physiology

Research Group:

Basal Ganglia Physiology