Connectionists: CFP- Frontiers Research Topic: Cortico-striato-nigro-thalamo-cortical Modeling for Understanding Motor Function and Neurodegenerative Disease

[Zheng]

To whom it may concern:

In collaboration with Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, we are 
organizing a Research Topic titled 
"Cortico-striato-nigro-thalamo-cortical Modeling for Understanding Motor 
Function and Neurodegenerative Disease”, hosted by Pengsheng Zheng, 
James Kozloski, Timothy Rumbell, George V. Rebec. As host editor, I 
would like to encourage you to contribute to this topic. Please find 
more information about Research Topics below, including the publishing 
fees that apply. You can also visit the homepage we have created on the 
Frontiers website, which defines the focus of the topic, and where all 
published articles will appear.

http://frontiersin.org/Computational_Neuroscience/researchtopics/Cortico-striato-nigro-thalamo-cortical_Modeling_for_Understanding_Motor_Function_and_Neurodegenerative_Disease/4744
Movement in the body is directly controlled by motor cortex, and also 
determined by multiple subcortical structures, such as thalamus and the 
basal ganglia (including striatum and dopamine neurons in the substantia 
nigra). Many lines of evidence have suggested the 
cortico-striato-nigro-thalamo-cortical circuitry plays a major role in 
motor learning and control. This circuitry has also been investigated 
for its causal role in the onset and progression of neurodegenerative 
diseases. Neurodegenerative diseases are often associated with movement 
disorders and neuronal dysfunction in degenerated brain structures, such 
as the striatum in Huntington’s disease and dopaminergic neurons in the 
substantia nigra pars compacta in Parkinson's disease. Degeneration 
fundamentally changes the dynamics of local neuronal circuits, and these 
changes then propagate through the structural connectome of whole brain 
circuitry, eventually altering global brain dynamics. However, our 
current understanding of these system dynamics in the 
cortico-striato-nigro-thalamo-cortical circuitry remains rudimentary. 
Hence, theoretical studies about critical system variables and 
computational principles of this circuitry, constrained by recordings 
throughout, will shed new light on causes of motor dysfunction and 
neurodegenerative diseases.

This Research Topic of Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience aims to 
bring together recent advances in theoretical modeling of 
cortico-striato-nigro-thalamo-cortical network and experimental 
observations. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, local 
brain circuit modeling, the functional role of neuronal plasticity in 
the local and global circuit, global circuit interactions and 
information exchange, new models validated by experimental observations, 
and dynamic disease risk analysis through perturbation studies.
Best regards,
Pengsheng Zheng
zhengp at us.ibm.com <mailto:zhengp at us.ibm.com>
T.J. Watson Research Center
1101 Kitchawan Rd., 13-114A
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
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