INTRODUCTION The subthalamic nucleus, substantia nigra, and globus pallidus, three nuclei of the human basal ganglia, play an important role in motor, associative, and limbic processing. The network of the basal ganglia is generally characterized by a direct, indirect, and hyperdirect pathway. This study aims to investigate the mesoscopic nature of these connections between the subthalamic nucl...

In March, 2010, a 53-year-old woman developed a black discolouration of her tongue. 4 weeks before developing the discolouration, she had had elective gynaecological surgery, from which she was recovering as an inpatient under our care. She did not smoke, but had a high intake of caff einated drinks, including six cups of tea and two cups of coff ee each day. During the course of her hospital s...

Substantia nigra is an important neuronal structure, located in the ventral midbrain, that exerts a regulatory function within the basal ganglia circuitry through the nigro-striatal pathway. Although its subcortical connections are relatively well-known in human brain, little is known about its cortical connections. The existence of a direct cortico-nigral pathway has been demonstrated in roden...

Gait and balance disturbances typically emerge in advanced Parkinson's disease with generally limited response to dopaminergic medication and subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation. Therefore, advanced programming with interleaved pulses was put forward to introduce concomittant nigral stimulation on caudal contacts of a subthalamic lead. Here, we hypothesized that the combined stimulation ...

Copyright: @ 2015 Dr. Alexander K.C. Leung. This is an Open Access article published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Received Date: 24th May 2015 Accepted Date: 23rd June 2015 Published Date: 26th June 2015 Research Artic...

Introduction Sambucus nigra, or European elder, is a tall tree-like shrub, native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and naturalized in the United States. Various parts of the elder have long been used in traditional medicine as a diaphoretic, diuretic, astringent, laxative, and emetic. The berries were used traditionally as a food to make elderberry wine and pies, and as a flavoring or dye. Cu...

A 38 year old patient with megalencephaly, mental retardation, and lifelong tremor developed levodopa responsive parkinsonism in his mid-30s followed by the appearance of dyskinesiae, motor fluctuations, hallucinations, and dementia. Brain MRI showed, as well as other changes, iron deposition in the globus pallidus, substantia nigra, and the pulvinar of the thalamus. Postmortem examination disc...