Tracking the novelty-induced exploration and the Parkinson's disease: ion channels control dopamine neurons

How are the activity of neurons, the novelty-induced exploration and the Parkinson's disease connected with each other? The teams of NGFN researchers Professor Birgit Liss from the University of Ulm and Professor Jochen Roeper from the University of Frankfurt discovered a specific protein, an ATP-sensitive potassium (K-ATP) ion channel, to be crucial for the activity of dopamine substantia nigra neurons. Consequently they are important for the pathophysiology of the Parkinson disease but also for novelty-dependent exploratory behavior. These new scientific findings which have been funded amongst others by the National Genome Research Network (NGFN) are now published in Nature Neuroscience.

Publication:
Nature Neuroscience (2012), doi:10.1038/nn.3185. K-ATP channels in dopamine substantia nigra neurons control bursting and novelty-induced exploration. Julia Schiemann, Falk Schlaudraff, Verena Klose, Markus Bingmer, Susumu Seino, Peter J Magill, Kareem A Zaghloul, Gaby Schneider, Birgit Liss & Jochen Roeper