Thursday, September 18, 2025 9/18/2025

Impaired sensory filtering as a mechanism of Parkinson's disease

Award Number: R01NS124563
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 08/01/2022
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2026

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Impaired sensory filtering as a mechanism of Parkinson's disease - PROJECT SUMMARY Conventional models of Parkinson’s disease (PD) dysfunction do not account for sensory feedback, which is both clearly represented in the basal ganglia and clearly impaired in PD. Despite the critical importance of this feedback to normal movement, the contribution of impaired sensory processing to PD pathophysiology is unknown. Our long-term goal is to clarify the role of sensory feedback in the production of pathological motor commands in PD. This research could help reveal the neural basis of both PD pathology and its treatment, leading to more efficient clinical practices, driving the development of novel therapeutic technologies, and helping to alleviate the enormous burdens of PD on patients and providers. In healthy people, the motor system will automatically ignore sensory feedback that is not directly relevant to the current behavioral goal. In this proposal, we seek to determine whether the basal ganglia participate in this goal-directed sensory filtering, and whether this process is impaired in PD. This phenomenon could potentially provide a framework to explain PD motor symptoms with a single underlying cause: normal sensory feedback is not filtered appropriately, which reduces the ability of the motor system to produce normal commands. Underdamped sensory feedback could produce excessive transcortical reflexes in rigidity, corrupt the brain’s internal models and interfere with movement planning in bradykinesia, and even produce tremor via stochastic resonance (a phenomenon common in nonlinear neural systems in which a sub-threshold oscillation is amplified by noise). Whether or not our specific hypotheses are supported, the experimental paradigms of this study will generate unparalleled data and insights into sensorimotor integration in the human brain. If our hypotheses are correct, however, we will further provide a framework for an unprecedented mechanistic model of PD symptom generation and a roadmap towards improved treatment.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2025	2024	UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM	701 S 20TH STREET	BIRMINGHAM	AL	35294	JEFFERSON	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	3	8/26/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $360,113 )
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM	701 S 20TH STREET	BIRMINGHAM	AL	35294	JEFFERSON	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	3	7/25/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$360,113
														Subtotal = $360,113

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $371,250 )
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM	701 S 20TH ST	BIRMINGHAM	AL	35294	JEFFERSON	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	2	9/1/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$371,250
														Subtotal = $371,250

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $371,250 )
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM	701 S 20TH ST	BIRMINGHAM	AL	35294	JEFFERSON	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	1	7/19/2022	NEW	$371,250
														Subtotal = $371,250

Grand Total All Awards = $1,102,613

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Impaired sensory filtering as a mechanism of Parkinson's disease

Award Number: R01NS124563

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 08/01/2022

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2026

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer