Editing Subthalamic nucleus (section)

===Subthalamic nucleus===
The first intracellular electrical recordings of subthalamic neurons were performed using sharp electrodes in a rat slice preparation.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}}  In these recordings three key observations were made, all three of which have dominated subsequent reports of subthalamic firing properties. The first observation was that, in the absence of current injection or synaptic stimulation, the majority of cells were spontaneously firing. The second observation is that these cells are capable of transiently firing at very high frequencies.   The third observation concerns non-linear behaviors when cells are transiently depolarized after being hyperpolarized below –65mV. They are then able to engage voltage-gated calcium and sodium currents to fire bursts of action potentials.

Several recent studies have focused on the autonomous pacemaking ability of subthalamic neurons. These cells are often referred to as "fast-spiking pacemakers",<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Surmeier DJ, Mercer JN, Chan CS | title = Autonomous pacemakers in the basal ganglia: who needs excitatory synapses anyway? | journal = Current Opinion in Neurobiology | volume = 15 | issue = 3 | pages = 312–318 | date = June 2005 | pmid = 15916893 | doi = 10.1016/j.conb.2005.05.007 | s2cid = 42900941 | author-link1 = D. James Surmeier }}</ref> since they can generate spontaneous [[action potential]]s at rates of 80 to 90&nbsp;Hz in primates.

Oscillatory and synchronous activity<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Levy R, Hutchison WD, Lozano AM, Dostrovsky JO | title = High-frequency synchronization of neuronal activity in the subthalamic nucleus of parkinsonian patients with limb tremor | journal = The Journal of Neuroscience | volume = 20 | issue = 20 | pages = 7766–7775 | date = October 2000 | pmid = 11027240 | pmc = 6772896 | doi = 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.20-20-07766.2000 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Lintas A, Silkis IG, Albéri L, Villa AE | title = Dopamine deficiency increases synchronized activity in the rat subthalamic nucleus | journal = Brain Research | volume = 1434 | issue = 3 | pages = 142–151 | date = January 2012 | pmid = 21959175 | doi = 10.1016/j.brainres.2011.09.005 | s2cid = 14636489 | url = https://inserm.hal.science/inserm-00851266/file/Lintas_2012_Dopamine_Deficiency_AA.pdf }}</ref> is likely to be a typical pattern of discharge in subthalamic neurons recorded from patients and animal models characterized by the loss of dopaminergic cells in the [[substantia nigra pars compacta]], which is the principal pathology that underlies [[Parkinson's disease]].