Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Nervous System Diseases
Role Of The Dorsal Striatum In Learning And Decision Making, Nole M. Hiebert
Role Of The Dorsal Striatum In Learning And Decision Making, Nole M. Hiebert
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
The striatum, the input region of the basal ganglia, has been shown to mediate many cognitive functions. The striatum itself can be functionally segregated into dorsal (DS) and ventral striatum (VS). For more than 60 years, DS has been reported to mediate stimulus-response learning, though evidence has been accruing pointing to a role in decision making. These literatures have been growing independently and an aim of this thesis was to bridge these two bodies of knowledge. We directly investigated the role of DS in stimulus-response learning versus decision making using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in patients with Parkinson’s disease …
Is Online Motor Control Really Impaired In Parkinson's Disease?, Kate E. Merritt
Is Online Motor Control Really Impaired In Parkinson's Disease?, Kate E. Merritt
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are thought to be selectively impaired in consciously-mediated online automatic motor control, whereas the ability to perform subconscious online adjustments remains intact. This present study evaluates the hypothesis that the previously alleged deficits in online motor control in PD are not due to the consciousness of the correction, but rather are attributable to aspects of the prior experimental designs disproportionately penalizing patients for PD-related bradykinesia. Here, we implemented a modified traditional double-step paradigm to investigate consciously-mediated online motor control in PD, in a manner that would be unconfounded by disease-related bradykinesia. Further, we investigated the …