Readiness Potential and Neuronal Determinism: New Insights on Libet Experiment

Circadian clocks in health and diseas

Light Therapy in Parkinson's Disease: Towards Mechanism-Based Protocols

Circadian clocks in health and diseas

Mechanisms of sleep/wake regulation under hypodopaminergic state: insights from the MitoPark mouse model of Parkinson's disease

Sleep/wake alterations are predominant in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders involving dopamine dysfunction. Unfortunately, specific, mechanisms-based therapies for these debilitating sleep problems are currently lacking. The pathophysiological mechanisms of sleep/wake alterations within a hypodopaminergic MitoPark mouse model of Parkinson's disease (PD) are investigated. MitoPark mice replicate most PD-related sleep alterations, including sleep fragmentation, hypersomnia, and daytime sleepiness. Surprisingly, these alterations are not accounted for by a dysfunction in the circadian or homeostatic regulatory processes of sleep, nor by acute masking effects of light or darkness. Rather, the sleep phenotype is linked with the impairment of instrumental arousal and sleep modulation by behavioral valence. These alterations correlate with changes in high-theta (8–11.5 Hz) electroencephalogram power density during motivationally-charged wakefulness. These results demonstrate that sleep/wake alterations induced by dopamine dysfunction are mediated by impaired modulation of sleep by motivational valence and provide translational insights into sleep problems associated with disorders linked to dopamine dysfunction. Circadian clocks in health and diseas

Circadian and Homeostatic Modulation of Multi-Unit Activity in Midbrain Dopaminergic Structures

Circadian clocks in health and diseas

Early Presymptomatic and Long-Term Changes of Rest Activity Cycles and Cognitive Behavior in a MPTP-Monkey Model of Parkinson's Disease

It is increasingly recognized that non-motor symptoms are a prominent feature of Parkinson's disease and in the case of cognitive deficits can precede onset of the characteristic motor symptoms. Here, we examine in 4 monkeys chronically treated with low doses of the neurotoxin MPTP the early and long-term alterations of rest-activity rhythms in relationship to the appearance of motor and cognitive symptoms.Behavioral activity recordings as well as motor and cognitive assessments were carried out continuously and in parallel before, during and for several months following MPTP-treatment (12–56 weeks). Cognitive abilities were assessed using a task that is dependent on the functional integrity of the fronto-striatal axis. Rest-activity cycles were monitored continuously using infrared movement detectors of locomotor activity. Motor impairment was evaluated using standardized scales for primates. Results show that MPTP treatment led to an immediate alteration (within one week) of rest-activity cycles and cognitive deficits. Parkinsonian motor deficits only became apparent 3 to 5 weeks after initiating chronic MPTP administration. In three of the four animals studied, clinical scores returned to control levels 5–7 weeks following cessation of MPTP treatment. In contrast, both cognitive deficits and chronobiological alterations persisted for many months. Levodopa treatment led to an improvement of cognitive performance but did not affect rest-activity rhythms in the two cases tested.Present results show that i) changes in the rest activity cycles constituted early detectable consequences of MPTP treatment and, along with cognitive alterations, characterize the presymptomatic stage; ii) following motor recovery there is a long-term persistence of non-motor symptoms that could reflect differential underlying compensatory mechanisms in these domains; iii) the progressive MPTP-monkey model of presymptomatic ongoing parkinsonism offers possibilities for in-depth studies of early non-motor symptoms including sleep alterations and cognitive deficits

Altération du système circadien chez les modèles rongeurs et primates non humainde la maladie de Parkinson

Since the first description by James Parkinson in his essay on the shaking palsy, Parkinson’s disease (PD) was recognized as a motor disease identified by a tetrad of symptoms, namely; akinesia, muscular rigidity, resting tremor and postural instability. These symptoms are known to be related to loss of dopamine (DA) in the striatum following neural degeneration in the substantia nigra (SN). It is increasingly recognized that non-motor and perhaps non-dopaminergic related symptoms inevitably emerge and worsen during disease progression. Sleep disruption is one of the major non-motor symptoms and has been suggested as a preclinical marker of the disease. Models of sleep regulation have emphasized two distinct processes: a sleep-control mechanism, or sleep homeostat, and a circadian oscillator. The circadian oscillator, based in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), is responsible for the tendency to sleep during certain phases of the 24-hour cycle and the consolidation of sleep and wake into distinct episodes. The sleep homeostat is responsible for monitoring and reacting to the need for sleep, causing the urge to sleep to depend on prior amounts of sleep or wakefulness. While disruptions in the circuitry and the homeostatic processes involved in the regulation of sleep-wake behaviour is will documented in PD, the potential involvement of alterations of the circadian system have not been studied in detail. The aim of my thesis is to investigate alterations in the circadian timing system using two animal models of PD: the mouse and the non-human primate. Taken together, the studies show that disturbances of circadian functions occur after MPTP treatment in the non-human primate but not in the mouse model of PD. These results emphasize the limitations of the MPTP-treated mouse model of PD for the study of non-motor symptoms, and reinforce previous studies that question the adequacy of this model to replicate cardinal motor features of the disease. In contrast, results in the non-human primate model stress the importance of dopaminergic degeneration in the circadian organisation of behavioral sleep wake cycle in PDDepuis sa première description par James Parkinson dans son essai sur la paralysie agitante, la maladie de Parkinson (PD) a été reconnue comme une maladie du système moteur identifié par une tétrade de symptômes, à savoir : akinésie, rigidité musculaire, tremblement au repos et instabilité posturale. Ces symptômes sont liés à la perte de la dopamine (DA) dans le striatum après la dégénérescence neuronale dans la substance noire (SN). Il est de plus en plus reconnu que les symptômes non moteurs et peut-être non dopaminergiques inévitablement émergent et s'aggravent au cours de la progression de la maladie. Les perturbations du sommeil sont parmi les principaux symptômes non moteurs et ont été reconnus comme marqueurs précliniques de la maladie. Les modèles de régulation du sommeil ont insisté sur deux processus distincts : un mécanisme de contrôle du sommeil, ou homéostat sommeil, et un oscillateur circadien. L'oscillateur circadien, basé dans le noyau suprachiasmatique (NSC) est responsable de la tendance à dormir pendant certaines phases du cycle de 24 heures et la consolidation du sommeil et de réveil en épisodes distincts. L'homéostat sommeil est chargé de surveiller et de réagir à la nécessité pour le sommeil, provoquant l'envie de dormir à dépendre sur les montants avant du sommeil ou de l'éveil. Alors que les perturbations dans les circuits et les processus homéostatiques impliqués dans la régulation du sommeil-éveil comportement sont documenté dans la maladie de Parkinson, l'implication potentielle des altérations du système circadien n'ont pas été étudiés en détail. Le but de ma thèse est d'étudier les modifications dans le système circadien en utilisant deux modèles animaux de PD : la souris et le primate non-humai

Sirtuin 3: A Molecular Pathway Linking Sleep Deprivation to Neurological Diseases

Circadian clocks in health and diseas

Alterations of the Circadian System in Parkinson's Disease Patients

Circadian clocks in health and diseas

The Central Clock in Patients With Parkinson Disease

Circadian clocks in health and diseas

Heterogenous electrophysiological responses of functionally distinct striatal subregions to circadian and sleep-related homeostatic processes

Basal ganglia (BG) are a set of subcortical nuclei that are involved in the control of a wide variety of motor, cognitive, and affective behaviors. Although many behavioral abnormalities associated with BG dysfunction overlap with the clinical picture precipitated by the lack of sleep, the impact of sleep alterations on neuronal activity in BG is unknown. Using wild-type C57BI mice, we investigated the circadian and sleep-related homeostatic modulation of neuronal activity in the three functional subdivisions of the striatum (i.e. sensorimotor, associative, and limbic striatum). We found no circadian modulation of activity in both ventral and dorsomedial striatum while the dorsolateral striatum displayed a significant circadian rhythm with increased firing rates during the subjective dark, active phase. By combining neuronal activity recordings with electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, we found a strong modulation of neuronal activity by the nature of vigilance states with increased activity during wakefulness and rapid eye movement sleep relative to nonrapid eye movement sleep in all striatal subregions. Depriving animals of sleep for 6 h induced significant, but heterogenous alterations in the neuronal activity across striatal subregions. Notably, these alterations lasted for up to 48 h in the sensorimotor striatum and persisted even after the normalization of cortical EEG power densities. Our results show that vigilance and sleep states as well as their disturbances significantly affect neuronal activity within the striatum. We propose that these changes in neuronal activity underlie both the well-established links between sleep alterations and several disorders involving BG dysfunction as well as the maladaptive changes in behavior induced in healthy participants following sleep loss.Circadian clocks in health and diseas