How does the brain: the substantia nigra Bashny.Net

Today we offer You a story about the black though, but indispensable matter (or substance) of our brain.

The substantia nigra (or Substantia nigra) is not so much space as a white solid. It is located in the midbrain is one of the oldest structures in the center of the brain. Namely, hidden under his four mounds. To be precise at all, then each of us has two Substantia nigra — left and right.





The average brain. Animation by Life Science Databases(LSDB).





The cross section of the midbrain at the level of the corpora quadrigemina. The substantia nigra shows guess what color.

 

Despite the fact that in the Substantia nigra, as well as in the gray matter, are the bodies of neurons, it is much darker due to its "painting" neuromelanin (by the way, another form of this pigment — melanin gives color to our eyes, skin and hair).

 





Monomer neuromelanin

 

Only in the substantia nigra there are two layers:the compact layer (pars compacta) and ventral (pars reticulata). There is need to clarify the word "ventral".

Doctors use two spatial antonym: ventral and dorsal. "Ventral" means "abdominal". This does not mean that the ventral layer of the black substance is in the stomach. He's just in the body is more front. "Ventral" is front, "dorsal" — the back (dorsal).

If to speak about functionality of the layers, it is compact in some sense similar to the CPU of a computer – it processes information and passes it to the thalamus and cetverokatnice of the midbrain, and ventral — ensures the production of the neurotransmitter dopamine. The layers are arranged vertically, pars compacta is located closer to the axis of the body than the pars reticulata.





Dopamine

Thanks to the black substance, we can move your eyes, to perform small and precise movements, particularly of the fingers, to chew and swallow. And our bodies can carry out respiration, cardiac activity, to keep the tone of blood vessels.

Disruption of the substantia nigra lead to various diseases. There is a hypothesis that in it lies the mystery of schizophrenia. And Parkinson's disease, which we often write on the portal, is caused by impaired production of dopamine in substantia nigra: it there causes the death of neurons.





Histology of a black body of a patient with Parkinson's disease

 

The researchers even found MPTP neurotoxin (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine), which is exactly the same as Parkinson's disease destroys dopamine neurons, and are now actively using it on mice to model the disease and finding ways of treating it.published





MTFP

 





Left skin cells (fibroblasts), to the right of them grown neurons

 

Author: Anastasiya Sheshukova

 

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P. S. And remember, only by changing their consumption — together we change the world! ©

Source: www.neurotechnologies.ru/articles/substantianigra