Abstract: The invention involves a method of stereotactic and viral vector-mediated gene transfer to produce animals harboring in their neural tissue a polynucleotide sequence, an allelic variant, minigene or a homolog thereof, that encodes for &agr;-synuclein or functional homnologues thereof and overexpresses ccsynuclein or functional homologues thereof locoregional in said neural tissue. Overexpression of &agr;-synuclein is associated with locoregional pathology in the neural tissue as evidenced by histology and neurodegeneration as evidenced by histology. These animals can be used in pharmaceutical screening and for in vivo modelling of &agr;-synuclein biochemistry.