Introduction to Neuroscience 2: Lecture 10, Basal Ganglia

In this lecture, I describe the basal ganglia, the brain areas that regulate procedural memories, such as playing a violin or swinging a baseball bat. We learn about the direct pathway, also known as the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop, that is critical for fixed action patterns that are learned. We also learn about the indirect pathway. which is critical for suppressing unwanted movement. I discuss diseases of these systems: Parkinson's Disease and Huntington's Disease. I also briefly discuss how this circuit controls eye movements via the superior colliculus.

Here is a link to a video showing the effects of deep brain stimulation to combat Parkinson's Disease.

Fixed the audio on the last four slide