Grant: Project Grant

Over the last decade, impressive advances have been made in our understanding of locomotion and the control of movement. Our work explores this issue by activating dopamine pathways to the brainstem areas that control locomotor activity. One of the key unanswered questions is how animals execute locomotor behaviours. Here we explore this issue by examining how activation of a region of the brain can control whether an animal escapes an aversive stimulus or conversely how it can lead to the animal exploring its environment. We provide evidence that the level of dopaminergic or GABAergic drive to the cuneiform nucleus influences the choice to approach or avoid a stimulus. We show that centres within the brain that contain dopamine are particularly effective in activating locomotor activity associated with escape. On the other hand, GABAergic input to the cuneiform nucleus inhibits escape behaviour and instead promotes a state of exploratory activity. This proposal will examine the anatomical, functional, and cellular basis for these phenomena. This raises the possibility that stimulation of these dopamine and GABA centres within the zona incerta could facilitate locomotion in patients with movement disorders.