The white matter microstructure of the basal ganglia circuitry and its changes in Parkinson’s disease

Mole, Jilu Princy 2018. The white matter microstructure of the basal ganglia circuitry and its changes in Parkinson’s disease. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative with an estimated prevalence of 1% in people older than 60 years and rising to 3% in people older than 80 years (Lee and Gilbert 2016). Currently, the exact aetiology of PD is not known, there is no cure and there are no therapeutic interventions that can possibly delay disease progression. The symptoms can be controlled or managed by treatment, physical therapy and/or surgical procedures however these cause side effects and complications. Therefore, there is an increasing need for understanding the underlying pathophysiology of the disease which will aid in developing therapeutic treatments that help alleviate symptoms without side effects while minimizing the requirement for medications. The aim of this thesis was to explore selected white matter connections of the basal ganglia circuitry and investigate their changes in PD thereby potentially increasing our understanding of the underlying pathophysiology in PD. Results from my PhD show selective compensatory and neurodegenerative differences in selected motor and non-motor white matter pathways in PD patients compared to healthy controls. For the first time, I describe and develop an anatomical protocol for in vivo segmentation of two basal ganglia-cerebellar tracts and demonstrate their spatial independence and their cortical connections. Results from my investigation of the main cerebellar pathways and the two basal ganglia-cerebellar tracts show that the cerebellar input and output structures are involved in the pathophysiology of PD. My results pave way for future studies to further explore and delineate the specific compensatory and neurodegenerative processes of these white matter pathways in PD.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Submission
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Medicine
Funders:	Cardiff University Overseas Research Scholarship
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	2 May 2018
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2021 13:46
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/111139

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