This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Wellbeing.
While much is understood about the underlying pathology associated with motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD), less is known about the circuitry and mechanisms associated with non-motor symptoms. Cognitive, neuropsychiatric, sensory, and autonomic dysfunction are all common symptoms in PD and can negatively impact the quality of life of patients, sometimes even more than the motor symptoms. In addition, many of the non-motor symptoms are reported to develop early, before the onset of motor impairments, suggesting they may be important targets for neuroprotective treatments and earlier disease detection.
PD models have been instrumental in the discovery and implementation of current therapies for many of the motor symptoms in the disorder. However, there are limited treatments for the non-motor symptoms and there remains a need for models that recapitulate the broad array of cognitive, neuropsychiatric, sensory, and autonomic, impairments in the context of PD-associated neurodegeneration and pathology. The research in this collection focuses on the use of different model systems to understand the circuitry, pathology, and behavior underlying non-motor symptoms in PD.
Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Cognitive dysfunction in early (executive) and/or late-stage (memory/dementia) PD and analysis of prefrontal cortex, basal forebrain, and hippocampal circuitry and pathology
- Anxiety and amygdala pathology in the context of PD neurodegeneration and/or pathology
- Depression-like behavior and monoaminergic systems in PD
- Autonomic symptoms including sleep, cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal function in the context of PD-associated neurodegeneration and pathology
- Sensory impairments such as pain, vision, and olfaction in PD