Effects of Substantia Nigra pars compacta lesion on the behavioral sequencing in the 6-OHDA model of Parkinson's disease

The basal ganglia circuitry plays a crucial role in the sequential organization of behavior. Here we studied the behavioral structure of the animals after 21 days of 6-OHDA-induced lesion of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal system. Frequencies and durations of individual components of the behavioral repertoire were calculated; moreover, whether a temporal organization of the activity was present, it was investigated by using T-pattern analysis, a multivariate approach able to detect the real-time sequential organization of behavior. Six sham-depleted and six rats with unilateral 6 OHDA-lesion of the Substantia Nigra pars compacta were used. As to quantitative evaluations, the comparison between lesioned and unlesioned rats revealed significant differences only for the mean occurrences of Walking, Immobile Sniffing and Stretched Sniffing, reduced in lesioned subjects. All the remaining components of the behavior did not show significant changes. On the other hand, results from T-pattern analysis showed a reduction of the number of different T-patterns, of their mean length and of their occurrences in 6-OHDA-lesioned rats. Overall, these results suggest that the main deficit in 6-OHDA-lesioned subjects, rather than in the production of individual behavioral components, lies in deficiencies of their sequential organization.