Essays on Striatum

Abstract

This paper is about the investigation of Parkinson’s disease, and in particular is involved with the examination of its symptoms, stages, causes, prevalence, diagnosis and treatment, and social impacts. Finally, the paper analyzes and evaluates two ongoing on Parkinson’s disease researches, which are also examined in respect to their impact on Parkinson’s disease patients. Key words: Parkinson disease, Parkinson disease causes and impacts, Parkinson disease symptoms and prevalence, Parkinson disease diagnosis, and Parkinson disease ongoing research.

Idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressively evolving disease with main manifestations resting tremor, muscle stiffness, slow movement and loss ...

INTRODUTION

Catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) is an enzyme that plays a significant role in the metabolism of dopamine (DA) and amounts to approximately 60% or more of DA breakdown in the frontal cortex . The gene expressing the COMT enzyme could affect cognition and functioning of the brain via its action on dopaminergic function. A polymorphic variation occurs in the coding area of the COMT gene (a Guanine to Adenine replacement), changing the amino acid from valine (Val) to methionine (Met) at the codon position 158 (Val158Met) and consequently influencing the thermal tolerance and stability of the enzyme. Allelic discrepancies in enzyme ...

Summary: The interaction between the limbic system and the subcortical dopaminergic system, is important in the experience of reward by the individual. The hypothesis in the present study is that, increased excitability of the medial prefrontal cortex, exerts a suppressive effect on the interaction between subcortical dopaminergic system and the limbic striatum structures (Ferenczi et al.). Lack of a reward seeking behavior is seen in patients with depression and MRI studies in these subjects have identified increased excitability of the medial prefrontal cortex. This finding was suggested as a rationale for the study. The experiments were designed to demonstrate ...