Martin Parent, PhD
Full Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Université Laval
Principal Investigator, CERVO Brain Research Centre
My research team investigates the anatomical and functional organization of the basal ganglia, a set of subcortical structures involved in motor behavior, in rodents, human and non-human primates. Our research projects aim at characterizing alterations of neuronal circuits that occur in Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s chorea using animal models of neurodegenerative diseases and post-mortem human brains. We take advantage of a vast array of methodological approaches that include in vivo electrophysiological recordings followed by tracer injections and three-dimensional reconstructions of neurons, examination of synaptic contacts by electron microscopy, localization of neurotransmitters and analysis of post-mortem human brain tissue using optical and confocal microscopy.
Selected Publications
Cholinergic and Nadph-δ neurons in the pedunculopontine and laterororsal tegmental nuclei of human and non-human primates.
Evolving characterization of the human hyperdirect pathway.
The density of calretinin striatal interneurons is decreased in 6-OHDA-lesioned mice.
Metformin rescues migratory deficits of cells derived from patients with periventricular heterotopia.
The contribution of inflammatory astrocytes to BBB impairments in Parkinson’s disease.
Continuous but not intermittent theta burst stimulation decreases striatal dopamine release and cortical excitability.
A topographic atlas of the human brainstem in the ponto-mesencephalic junction plane.
Astrocytes display ultrastructural alterations and heterogeneity in the hippocampus of aged APP-PS1 mice and human post-mortem brain samples.
Ultrastructural characterization of dark microglia during aging in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease pathology and in human post-mortem brain samples.
Histology-driven model of the macaque hyperdirect pathway.
Dopaminergic neurons establish a distinctive axonal arbor with a majority of non-synaptic terminals.
The rise of Raman spectroscopy in neurosurgery: a review.
The highly-selective mGlu2 receptor positive allosteric modulator, LY-487,379 alleviates L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia in the 6-OHDA-lesioned rat model of Parkinson’s disease.
Dysregulated expression of monoacylglycerol lipase is a marker for anti-diabetic drug metformin-targeted therapy to correct impaired neurogenesis and spatial memory in Alzheimer’s disease.
Levodopa partially rescues microglial numerical, morphological, and phagolysosomal alterations in a monkey model of Parkinson’s disease.
The Quebec Parkinson Network: A researcher-patient matching platform and multimodal biorepository.
The dynamic interplay between ATP/ADP levels and autophagy sustain neuronal migration in vivo.
Anistropic light scattering from myelinated axons in the spinal cord.
Deep brain stimulation of the pedunculopontine nucleus area in Parkinson’s disease: anatomo-clinical correlations and optimal target.
Holographic reconstruction of axonal pathways in the human brain.
Convolutional neural networks for spectroscopic analysis in retinal oximetry.
Ultrastructural evidence of microglial heterogeneity in Alzheimer’s disease amyloid pathology.
High Sensitivity Mapping of Cortical Dopamine D2 Receptor Expressing Neurons.
Intraoperative fiber-optic guidance during chronic electrode implantation in deep brain stimulation neurosurgery: Proof of concept in primates.
