The effort involves several labs at the University of Pittsburgh and one at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It’s being funded by a $12 million grant from the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s Initiative and implemented by the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Strick’s collaborators plan to focus on two circuits in the brain that appear to control voluntary movement. One is damaged by Parkinson’s, leading to symptoms including tremor, freezing, and poor balance and coordination.
“Our hypothesis is that there’s another circuit that’s intact, and that this circuit isn’t affected in Parkinson’s disease,” Strick says.
Strick’s team believes this other circuit can be switched on by strong emotions, including positive ones.
“It’s engaged by our sense of reward, by the joy of doing something,” he says.
