Symptoms
- akinesia – loss of voluntary movement (inability to move; greek kinesis, meaning “motion”)
- bradykinesia – slow movement (slow movement, greek bradys, “slow”)
- cognitive – relating to the ability for perception and understanding
- chorea – jerky and uncontrollable movements
- dementia – a collection of symptoms including memory loss, personality changes, and impaired cognition; for further explanations see here.
- psychosis – includes delusions and hallucinations
- risk factors – something which makes an individual more likely to get a certain disease
- tremor – involuntary shivering movement
Biology and disease characteristics
- amyloid plaque – a build-up of misfolded proteins (in the majority beta-amyloid) that forms outside of the cells
- assay – a method of analysis
- codon – a unit of DNA made up of three bases (a combination of ATGC) which encodes a specific amino acid
- extracellular – outside of the cell
- Lewy bodies – a protein build-up outside the cell mostly made up of alpha-synulclein
- mitochondria – an organelle responsible for respiration in cells
- neurofibrillary tangles – a build-up of tau protein aggregates within cells; tau normally binds to filamentous structures called microtubules which form the highways of cellular transport of materials, and when this function is affected neurons become malfunctional.
- pathological – adjective relating to changes that occur because of a disease
- trinucleotide – see codon
Brain anatomy
- axon – the cable-like projection of a nerve cell which conducts nerve impulses within the nervous system or between the nervous system and the body; these cables are the essential element of nerves
- cholinergic neurons – a nerve cell which uses the chemical neurotransmitter substance acetylcholine to transmit signals to other nerve cells or muscles
- dopaminergic neurons – a nerve cell which uses the chemical neurotransmitter substance dopamine to send signals to other nerve cells
- gyri – ridges in the folds of the cerebral cortex (the outer layer/surface of the brain)
Motor neuron – a nerve cell which sends signals from the brain to the muscles of the body, telling them to move - striatum – a part of the lower brain (located close to the neck region) responsible for coordinating movements
- sulci – depressions in the folds of the cerebral cortex (the outer layer/surface of the brain)
- ventricles – cavities within the brain, filled with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which continue into a canal that runs all the way down through the spinal cord
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