Prefrontal dopamine and cognitive symptoms of Parkinsons disease

描述（由申请人提供）：这个指导职业发展奖将推进Nandakumar Narayanan博士的职业生涯，使其成为一名独立的医生-科学家，专注于帕金森病认知功能障碍的机制。目前，还没有治疗帕金森病认知功能障碍的方法，其机制尚不清楚。Narayanan博士提出了利用最先进的技术来选择性地记录，干扰和刺激自由移动，行为动物的神经元的实验。这项研究将探讨帕金森病认知功能障碍的机制。这一建议可能会激发新的治疗策略的认知症状的PD的基础上现有的基因治疗，功能性神经外科和脑刺激方法。 Narayanan博士拥有强大的神经科学背景，拥有神经科学博士学位，并确定了一支优秀的导师团队。他的主要导师将是拉尔夫·迪利昂博士，一位创新的分子生物学家，他将教他解开神经回路的新工具。同时，他将扩展他的神经系统训练，以掌握帕金森病患者和深部脑刺激的各个方面。他的训练将在一个 充满活力的神经科学社区与强大的部门支持。从这些努力中，他将学习一套独特的技能，以探索帕金森病认知功能障碍的机制。这个指导性的职业发展奖将使纳拉亚南博士能够将他的基础研究成果转化为临床竞技场，以帮助帕金森病患者。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This mentored career development award will advance the career of Dr. Nandakumar Narayanan towards becoming an independent physician-scientist focused on the mechanism of cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease. Currently, there are no treatments for cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease and the mechanism is unclear. Dr. Narayanan proposes experiments that leverage state-of-the art techniques for selectively recording, disrupting, and stimulating neurons in freely-moving, behaving animals. The proposed research will interrogate the mechanism of cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease. This proposal could inspire new therapeutic strategies for cognitive symptoms of PD based on existing gene therapy, functional neurosurgery and brain stimulation approaches. Dr. Narayanan has a strong neuroscience background with a PhD in neuroscience, and has identified an outstanding mentorship team. His primary mentor will be Dr. Ralph DiLeone, an innovative molecular biologist who will teach him novel tools to unravel neural circuits. In parallel, he will extend his neurological training to master all aspects of carng for patients with Parkinson's disease and with deep-brain stimulation. His training will occur in a vibrant neuroscience community with robust departmental support. From these efforts, he will learn a unique skill set to explore the mechanism of cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease. This mentored career development award will position Dr. Narayanan to translate insights from his basic research to the clinical arena to help patients with Parkinson's disease.