Translate:
English
Chinese (S)
Chinese (T)
Croatian
Dutch
French
German
Hebrew
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Portuguese
Russian
Serbian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Additional
substantia nigra
English Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia
Download this dictionary
Substantia nigra
The
substantia nigra
is a brain structure located in the
mesencephalon
(midbrain) that plays an important role in
reward
,
addiction
, and
movement
.
Substantia nigra
is
Latin
for "black substance", reflecting the fact that parts of the substantia nigra appear darker than neighboring areas due to high levels of
neuromelanin
in
dopaminergic
neurons
. It was discovered in 1784 by
Félix Vicq-d'Azyr
, and
Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring
alluded to this structure in 1791.
Parkinson's disease
is characterized by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra
pars compacta
.
See more at Wikipedia.org...
© This article uses material from
Wikipedia
®
and is licensed under the
GNU Free Documentation License
and under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License