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Where Parkinson's begins
The tiny strip Parkinson's empties
The substantia nigra ("black substance", named for its dark pigment) is a thin strip in the midbrain. Its cells make dopamine and send it up to the striatum (caudate + putamen), which helps start and scale movements.
In Parkinson's disease these dopamine cells die off. By the time tremor, stiffness and slowness appear, much of the dopamine supply to the striatum is already gone.
Treatment starts with medication that replaces dopamine (levodopa). When it stops working smoothly, deep brain stimulation (DBS) can help. Thin electrodes are placed in the subthalamic nucleus (or the globus pallidus) and deliver small electrical pulses.
Sources and licence
Rendered from open data: 7 T MRI and brain of a volunteer (Lüsebrink et al., Sci Data 2021, CC0): MRI, caudate, putamen, midbrain; substantia nigra, red nucleus and subthalamic nucleus from MASSP 2.0 (Bazin et al. 2025, CC BY 4.0). Dopamine paths and DBS electrodes drawn schematically.
Video licence: CC BY 4.0. To reuse it, credit “Cerebrarium (Aldo Spolaore)”, link to this page and name the data sources above.
Educational content, not medical advice.
