Pulses originate in a region different from where they stop

Researchers have found that the region where our impulses originate is different from the region where they stop, which could have implications for future research into Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases.

Impulse control is not simple. The ability to wait for the start whistle in a race, for example, shows our ability to neutralize forward momentum, which is emphasized Public.

The impulse is blocked in one of the neural pathways located in the basal ganglia of our brain. In these ganglia, we have two main neural pathways: direct and indirect.

It is in the indirect neural pathway that the process of stopping the impulse occurs, but the idea that these two neural pathways are crucial in our intention to act or not to act is not the last time.

Researchers have already believed that the direct path enhances the impulse to action, and the indirect path nullifies this will. In 2016, a group from the Champalimo Foundation demonstrated that stimulation of the direct pathway of the basal ganglia enhanced the effects in the rats used in this study.

Another foundation team is currently targeting two neural pathways. The results of a new study, published in the scientific journal Nature explain a better way How is momentum controlled? in our neural networks.

This new study also sheds light on research into pathologies with motor symptoms, such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease.

In addition to the role of the indirect neuronal pathway in the control of impulsivity, scientists have made another discovery: it is in the dorsomedial striatum, an area of ​​the basal ganglia associated with cognition, that impulses arise.

The striatum is where direct and indirect neural pathways send information to other areas of the basal ganglia themselves. In this case, two pieces of information are sent: one to create an impulse, the other to stop this impulse.

After working with mathematical models, the team moved on to experiments in rats, suppressing the transmission of information along a direct pathway in the dorsomedial striatum: animals changed their behaviorreducing impulses.

Joseph J. Paton, the researcher who led the study, explained in an interview with Público that our daily lives are full of situations in which we must control our impulses.

“From a kid at school who wants to answer a teacher’s question but has to wait to be called, to someone who wants to suppress the urge to eat sweets because they know they’re going to feel bad afterward, there are countless examples. in which we have management conflicts between a plurality of wills,” emphasizes Paton.

But by thinking from the opposite perspective, in these impulses we were also able to pick out some of the symptoms of illnesses such as Parkinson’s or Huntington’s, two of the examples mentioned by the group of scientists.

“Parkinson’s disease is largely caused by the death of cells that use dopamine, neurotransmitter involved in this disease. These cells transmit information through direct and indirect pathways that use different dopamine receptors,” emphasizes Paton.

In people suffering from this disease, the indirect pathway becomes more active and stops, for example, the impulse to move.

“When subjects regain the ability to move and the indirect pathway returns to its original level of activity, the same does not happen with the direct pathway,” explains Paton, adding that it could be new target of investigation for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

The researcher also pointed out that the new study could have implications for other diseases whose symptoms are associated with impulses.

“It’s interesting to think about other diseases like Tourette’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Although they are more cognitive, they also suggest a deregulation of this balance between stimulation and deterrence of behavior“, Basic moments.

“It’s important that we start thinking more about the different possibilities that might even explain some of the hard-to-understand data. We tend to think in a very linear way, and it’s hard to imagine that we can have multiple ways of acting,” concludes Paton.