In Parkinson's Disease, the Loss of Dopaminergic Inputs to the Striatum

Essay

In Parkinson's disease, the loss of dopaminergic inputs to the striatum lead to thalamic inhibition and ultimately disrupt the positive feedback loop that governs execution of cortically generated action commands. Dopamine has both excitatory and inhibitory actions on striatal neurons. Propose a hypothesis about whether excitatory effects on the striatum are more important than inhibitory effects. Design an experiment to test the hypothesis and describe below.