UH Biocomputation Group - Animalshttp://biocomputation.herts.ac.uk/2023-07-04T22:47:17+01:00Predicting saccades given the behavior of Purkinje cells2023-07-04T22:47:17+01:002023-07-04T22:47:17+01:00Eleonora Bernasconitag:biocomputation.herts.ac.uk,2023-07-04:/2023/07/04/predicting-saccades-given-the-behavior-of-purkinje-cells.html<p class="first last">Eleonora Bernasconi's Journal Club session where she will talk about her work in the talk entitled "Predicting saccades given the behavior of Purkinje cells".</p>
<p>On this week's Journal Club session, Eleonora Bernasconi will talk about her work in the talk entitled "Predicting saccades given the behavior of Purkinje cells".
Please see below for the abstract of a supporting paper.</p>
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<p>A better understanding of the neural and functional mechanisms underlying drug-induced
changes in pathological nystagmus is likely to improve medical treatment. A treatment
option for downbeat nystagmus (DBN), a common form of acquired fixation nystagmus that
often occurs with cerebellar degeneration, is low doses of the potassium channel blocker
4-aminopyridine (4-AP). The upward ocular drift in DBN has a spontaneous and a vertical
gaze-evoked component. Detailed analysis of the effect of 4-AP in patients showed that the
drug consistently improved the gaze-evoked component, but had less effect in reducing the
spontaneous drift. We show by a combination of computational modelling at the systems
level and at the neuronal level how this differential effect can be investigated. We have
previously postulated that DBN is caused by damage to the floccular lobe (FL). 4-AP, which
has been shown to increase the excitability of Purkinje cells (PCs) in slice experiments,
may thus suppress DBN by partly restoring floccular function. We simulated the effect of
low concentrations of 4-AP on the cellular level using a multicompartment model of a PC,
in which we changed ion channel properties to simulate damage. The transition from the
cellular level to the systems level was achieved by constructing a population response.
Systems level modelling predicted that the effect of 4-AP on the PCs should reduce DBN,
but the predicted effect on the gaze-dependent component was less than is observed in
patients. Our results suggest that the beneficial effect of 4-AP on DBN cannot be solely
explained by its effect at the neuronal level of PCs, and suggests added effects at the
level of the population of neurons.</p>
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<p>Papers:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>S. Glasauer, C. Rössert, <a class="reference external" href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(08)00675-4">"Modelling drug modulation of nystagmus"</a>, 2008, Progress in Brain Research, 171, 527--534</li>
<li>S. Glasauer, <a class="reference external" href="https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1303.018">"Cerebellar contribution to saccades and gaze holding: a modeling approach"</a>, 2003, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1004, 206--219</li>
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<p><strong>Date:</strong> 2023/07/07 <br />
<strong>Time:</strong> 14:00 <br />
<strong>Location</strong>: online</p>