Latest Midbrain Stories

By Rothstein, Ted L Olanow, C Warren Shaking and slowness of movement may be the most obvious symptoms, but they are often not the most debilitating ones Parkinson's disease may not be an epidemic, but it's more common than you might think. Approximately 1,000,000 Americans suffer from the illness, with 60,000 new cases appearing each year in the United States alone. This neurodegenerative disorder, which is both progressive and incurable, usually begins around age 60, so neurologists...

New research has uncovered a fundamental cellular mechanism that may drive pathological drug-seeking behavior. The study, published by Cell Press in the July 31 issue of the journal Neuron, examines the brain's reward circuitry and details strikingly distinct influences of self-administered cocaine compared to natural rewards or passive cocaine injection.Dopamine (DA) neurons residing within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain are a key part of the brain's natural reward pathway and...

A team of scientists from Princeton University has devised a new experimental technique that produces some of the best functional images ever taken of the human brainstem, the most primitive area of the brain.The scientists believe they may be opening the door to inquiries into a region that acts as the staging area for the brain chemicals whose overabundance or absence in other parts of the brain are at the root of many neuropsychiatric disorders, like addiction, schizophrenia and...