A Novel Animal Model for Investigating the Neural Basis of Focal Dystonia
Abstract
The overall goal of the project was to develop an animal model of the focal dystonia benign essential blepharospasm. Consistent with the widely held view that dystonia results from an interaction between a predisposing condition and an environmental trigger, we proposed to use 7 Hz deep brain stimulation of the basal ganglia as the predisposing condition and dry eye as the environmental trigger. We hypothesized that the 7 Hz deep brain stimulation would exaggerate the blink adaptations to dry eye into spasms of lid closure characteristic of benign essential blepharospasm. Our preliminary data last year indicated that there were sex differences in the response to dry eye. This reporting year we completed the data analysis to show clear sex differences in the blink adaptations to dry eye. Our data suggest that dry eye increases the plasticity of female blink circuits relative to males, which provides an explanation of why blepharospasm is more common in females than in males.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1087105
Entities
People
- Leslie Evinger
Organizations
- Stony Brook University