Substantia nigra anatomy

FIGURE 29-1. Anatomy of the extrapyramidal system. The extrapyramidal motor system controls muscle movement through a system of pathways and nerve tracts that connect the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus, cerebellum, reticular formation, and spinal neurons. Patients with Parkinson s disease have a loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra in the brain stem that leads to depletion of dopamine in the corpus striatum. The corpus striatum is made up of the caudate nucleus and the lentiform nuclei that are made up of the putamen and the globus pallidus. 

Preston RJ, McCrea RA, Chang HT, Kitai ST (1981) Anatomy and physiology of substantia nigra and retrorubral neurons studied by extra- and intracellular recording and by horseradish peroxidase labelling. Neuroscience 6 331-344. 

Sano T (1910) Beitrag zur vergleichenden Anatomie der Substantia nigra, des Corpus Luysii und der Zona incerta. Mschr Psychiat Neurol 27 110-127. 

Aubert I, Brana C, Pellevoisin C, Giros B, Caille I, Carles D, Vital C, Bloch B (1997) Molecular anatomy of the development of the human substantia nigra. J Comp Neurol 379 72-87. 

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