Neuro-behavioral Impact of Tourette-Related Striatal Disinhibition in Rats
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Tourette syndrome has been linked to reduced GABAergic inhibition, so called neural disinhibition, in the dorsal striatum. Dorsal-striatal neural disinhibition in animal models, caused by local microinfusion of GABA-A-receptor antagonists, produces striatal local field potential (LFP) spike-wave discharges and tic-like movements resembling motor tics. Here, we characterized further the neuro-behavioral impact of striatal disinhibition, by unilateral picrotoxin infusion into the anterior dorsal striatum, in adult male Lister hooded rats. In vivo electrophysiology under anesthesia revealed enhanced neuronal burst firing in the striatum, alongside spike-wave LFP discharges. In freely moving rats, striatal picrotoxin reliably induced tic-like movements, which mainly involved lifting of the contralateral forelimb and concomitant rotational movements of head and torso, as well as occasional rotations of the whole body around its long axis. Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response was not affected, but startle reactivity tended to be reduced. Both locomotor and non-ambulatory movements, measured in photo-beam cages, were increased. Our findings suggest that, apart from generating tic-like movements, dorsal striatal disinhibition may contribute to hyperactivity, which is often comorbid with Tourette syndrome. Enhanced striatal burst firing may be important for these behavioral effects. Our findings do not support that striatal disinhibition contributes to PPI disruption, which has been associated with Tourette syndrome and suggested to contribute to tic generation. Significance Statement Striatal disinhibition has been implicated in tic generation. Using a rat model, we show that a key neural effect of striatal disinhibition is enhanced firing of striatal neurons in bursts. We also characterized further the tic-like movements caused by unilateral disinhibition of the anterior dorsal striatum. These mainly involved lifting of the contralateral forelimb and concomitant rotational movements of head and torso, as well as occasional rotations of the whole body around its long axis. Striatal disinhibition did not affect prepulse inhibition (PPI) but caused locomotor hyperactivity. This suggests that striatal disinhibition may contribute to the general hyperactivity often comorbid with Tourette syndrome, but that other brain mechanisms underlie the PPI deficits that have been reported in the condition.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".