Held Jointly with the 2004 SIAM Annual Meeting Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon

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Neuronal Dynamics and the Basal Ganglia

David Terman, Ohio State University

The basal ganglia are a group of nuclei that play an important role in the generation of movement. Dysfunction of the basal ganglia is associated with movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's chorea. Structures within the basal ganglia have in fact been the target of recent therapeutic surgical procedures. Numerous experiments have demonstrated that neurons within the basal ganglia display a variety of dynamic behaviors; moreover, patterns of neuronal activity differ between normal and pathological states. Neither the origins of these neural firing patterns nor the neuronal mechanisms that underlie the patterns are understood. As experiments continue to demonstrate the importance of temporal dynamics, the need for more realistic, biophysically based models is becoming increasingly clear. The primary goal of this lecture is to describe recent progress on the development of models realistic enough to test hypotheses for the role of neuronal activity within the basal ganglia in both normal and pathological states.

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11/19/03

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