Aryn Gittis

Professor Carnegie Mellon University

  • Pittsburgh PA

Aryn Gittis studies neural circuits in a multifunctional brain region that plays a role in the regulation of movement, learning, and reward.

Contact

Carnegie Mellon University

View more experts managed by Carnegie Mellon University

Biography

Aryn Gittis received her Ph.D. from UCSD in 2008 where she studied the vestibular system in the lab of Sascha du Lac. From 2008-2012 she was a postdoc with Anatol Kreitzer at the Gladstone Institute/UCSF where she began her studies of basal ganglia circuitry and its plasticity in disease. She started her lab at CMU in 2012 in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and is now an Associate Professor.

The Gittis lab studies the neural basis of motor control in health and disease. Using mouse models of Parkinson’s disease, our lab has identified cellular nodes where optogenetic interventions promote long-lasting recovery of movement in the disease state. Current studies seek to understand the broader motor circuits in which these nodes function, using a combination of behavior, electrophysiology, and anatomical approaches. We are also innovating new experimental models for the study of network compensation during progressive dopamine loss, and how these compensatory mechanisms preserve, or possible paradoxically exacerbate symptoms of movement disorders.

Areas of Expertise

Movement Disorders
Optogenetics
Neuroscience
Electrophysiology
Neural Circuits

Media Appearances

Basal Ganglia Pathway Key to Learning, Not Motor Control

Neuroscience News  online

2023-05-23

In a paper published in Neuron, Aryn Gittis and colleagues present new information about a neural pathway in the basal ganglia, a part of the brain important for skill learning, habit formation and motor control. The paper contradicts the model that has guided researchers’ understanding of motor learning for 30 years.

View More

Neuroscientists Gain New Understanding of Neural Pathway

Carnegie Mellon University News  online

2023-05-22

In a paper published in Neuron(opens in new window), Aryn Gittis(opens in new window) and colleagues present new information about a neural pathway in the basal ganglia, a part of the brain important for skill learning, habit formation and motor control. The paper contradicts the model that has guided researchers’ understanding of motor learning for 30 years.

View More

Research shows promising results for Parkinson's disease treatment

EurekAlert!  online

2021-10-07

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have found a way to make deep brain stimulation (DBS) more precise, resulting in therapeutic effects that outlast what is currently available. The work, led by Aryn Gittis and colleagues in CMU’s Gittis Lab, will significantly advance the study of Parkinson’s disease.

View More

Show All +

Social

Industry Expertise

Health and Wellness
Education/Learning
Research

Accomplishments

Eberly Family Career Development Endowed Chair in Biological Sciences

2015

Education

Gladstone Institute for Neurological Disease

Postdoctoral Appointment

2012

University of California, San Diego

Ph.D.

2008

Patents

Neuromodulation Using Electrical Stimulation

US20230064864A1

2023-03-02

Provided herein is method of modulating a plurality of neurons in a patient, by stimulating an area of the patient's central nervous system. The stimulation includes alternating first periods when a plurality of pulses of electrical stimulation are delivered and second periods when no pulses of electrical stimulation are delivered. The first periods have a duration of about 100 to about 400 ms and the second periods have a duration of about 500 ms to about 1900 ms. The pulses have a frequency of about 100 Hz to about 250 Hz.

View more

Articles

DAT and TH expression marks human Parkinson’s disease in peripheral immune cells

npj Parkinson's Disease

2022

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is marked by a loss of dopamine neurons, decreased dopamine transporter (DAT) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression. However, this validation approach cannot be used for diagnostic, drug effectiveness or investigational purposes in human patients because midbrain tissue is accessible postmortem. PD pathology affects both the central nervous and peripheral immune systems.

View more

Stressing the Importance of Cholinergic Interneurons in Striatal Function

Movement disorders: official journal of the Movement Disorder Society

2022

When pathological stressors threaten cellular health and function, the integrated stress response (ISR) may be recruited as a rescue response. An evolutionarily conserved signaling pathway, the ISR broadly dampens protein synthesis while also triggering translation of select transcription factors, effectively serving as a translational reset button once stressors have set the proteome into disequilibrium1. Perhaps not surprisingly, activation of the ISR occurs in a variety of neuropathologies, including movement disorders such as dystonia2.

View more

Population-specific neuromodulation prolongs therapeutic benefits of deep brain stimulation

SCIENCE

2021

Deep-brain stimulation as presently used in clinical settings, for example, to treat Parkinson’s disease, does not differentiate between different neural circuitries. Considerable improvements could thus be achieved with selective stimulation that targets particular neuronal populations. Spix et al. used optogenetics to develop a clever electrical stimulation protocol that enhances cell-type specificity (see the Perspective by Haas).

View more

Show All +