Welcome to the Brain Institute at
Logo
 

Elaine

VBI Director
Elaine Sanders-Bush

macdonald
"We are over 250 scientists from 50 departments, centers, and institutes across the Vanderbilt campus delving into questions in brain sciences spanning a spectrum from molecules to the mind."

 

 

 

For questions or comments about this website or to be added to the VBI mailing list, click here.
Parkinson

Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that impairs the sufferer's motor skills and speech.
The disease is named after English physician James Parkinson; where he made a detailed description of the disease, which he later wrote on his essay: "An Essay on the Shaking Palsy" (1817).

Parkinson's disease belongs to a group of conditions called movement disorders. It is characterized by physical movement (akinesia). The primary symptoms are the results of decreased stimulation of the motor cortex by the basal ganglia, normally caused by the insufficient formation and action of dopamine, which is produced in the dopaminergic neurons both chronic and progressive.

PD is also called "primary parkinsonism" or "idiopathic PD" (classically meaning having no known cause although this term is not strictly true in light of the plethora of newly discovered genetic mutations). While many forms of parkinsonism are "idiopathic", "secondary" cases may result from toxicity most notable drugs, head trauma, or other medical disorders.

DBS
Illustration of the Parkinson disease by Sir William Richard Gowers from A Manual of Diseases of the Nervous system in 1886
Retreat