Abstract

This entry describes a plethora of experimental observations from PD bradykinesia in humans and animals ranging across neuronal, electromyographic and behavioral levels and discusses related theoretical and computational models developed to reproduce and explain these findings. Some computational models of bradykinesia have focused entirely on the effects of dopamine depletion in the basal ganglio-thalamo-cortical relations, whereas others emphasize dopamine depletion in cortico-spino-muscular interactions. Future models will have to produce a more comprehensive and detailed neural model of basal ganglia-thalamo-cortico-spino-muscular interactions, in order to study more systematically the effects of dopamine depletion in these nuclei and integrate into a ‘unified theory’ all the known neurophysiological, EMG and behavioral observations associated with parkinsonism.