1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,280 For today's episode, we will cover autism and Parkinson's. 2 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:16,940 A major region of interest for both autism and Parkinson's is the basal ganglia. 3 00:00:16,940 --> 00:00:23,640 And sticking with this theme, we will cover some more basal ganglia, specifically the 4 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:33,880 substantia nigra. The substantia nigra is in the midbrain, sometimes called the mesencephalon, 5 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:40,920 sometimes called the tegmentum, and sometimes referred to as a region of the brainstem. 6 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:48,400 Essentially, the substantia nigra is towards the top of the brainstem. 7 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:57,000 The translation of substantia nigra is black substance or black matter. 8 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:06,160 This is because of the neuromellin. Remember neuromellin's roles, and it is black. 9 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:13,320 Because it is black, it receives all, all frequencies of light. 10 00:01:13,320 --> 00:01:23,840 Other nature uses it, because it is black. It was selected for specific roles. 11 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:29,880 Before I say the roles, this is true with the locus serilius as well. 12 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:38,340 Same area and same black substance. Same cause for the black. 13 00:01:38,340 --> 00:01:44,240 Neuro-mellin. Remember the locus serilius for epinephrine 14 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:50,000 and norepinephrine. You could call it brain adrenaline. 15 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:56,680 And that internal calculator we covered with the astrocytes, a type of glia cell. 16 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:04,080 This internal calculator that we covered was calculating effort versus outcome. 17 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:11,400 And if the outcome does not match, the glia shuts the locus serilius off. 18 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:17,120 So melanin. The synthesis of melanin comes from tyrosine, 19 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:24,680 an aromatic amino acid. Those GV light detectors 200 nanometer to 20 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:32,360 400 nanometer light. And tyrosine peaks at 280 nanometer. 21 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:39,120 The strongest wavelength that arrives on terrestrial land from the sun. 22 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:51,000 280 nanometer light starts the UVB range, which is 280 nanometer to 315. 23 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:57,480 Remember nanometer. There's 1000 nanometers in one micron. 24 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:08,480 And the sheet of paper is 80 to 90 microns. 80 to 90 millimeters. 25 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:15,320 These are very small and it fits the theme because of how small, how upstream we are 26 00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:25,120 going into our biology. The reason I say that is, this is as upstream 27 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:34,280 as we can think about going, at least for humans and our ability to measure and see things. 28 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:40,880 This is quantum biology. Environmental signals. 29 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:48,560 How living organisms on earth are created. The sources of energy. 30 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:57,320 How cells receive energy. Which provides energy to the living organism. 31 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:02,520 At the atomic level. How the powerhouses of the cells. 32 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:08,120 Remember the mitochondria. How the powerhouses of the cells receive 33 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:14,800 the energy, the powers to power the powerhouses. 34 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:21,440 Cells respond to environmental signals. Remember the two episodes on mitochondria. 35 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:29,080 And remember the cause of autism episode. Water production is coming from cytochrome 36 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:35,560 c-oxidase. And a decrease of this water production from 37 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:43,800 the mitochondria equals less energy. This is huge for today's topic. 38 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:55,040 Autism is underdeveloped cells. Parkinson's is that process running in reverse. 39 00:04:55,040 --> 00:05:03,920 Cells die because they lose energy. Melanin drives transduction. 40 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:12,920 A transfer of energy from the environment. Into and through our biology. 41 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:18,080 That's it. That's all you need to know about this. 42 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:25,680 That's all you need to know about autism. If you can't go here. 43 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:32,120 If you don't allow yourself to go here. And allow yourself to understand this. 44 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:37,600 You won't understand anything with our health and life. 45 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:45,520 You will not understand autism. You might think that the research in autism 46 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:51,280 is pretty lost. It seems like there's so much to cover. 47 00:05:51,280 --> 00:05:58,080 It seems like we're not getting anywhere. And this is true. 48 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:04,560 Centralized autism research misses this in large part. 49 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:12,640 It misses there is no power to the so called powerhouse of the cell. 50 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:22,360 And if you think about an infective fix. The treatment for Parkinson's is deep brain stimulation. 51 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:29,800 An electrode placed in these areas to supplement the loss of energy. 52 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:40,000 Energy lost from our modern environments that neglect the environment we evolved under. 53 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:47,800 Humans do this and no other species will do this. 54 00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:54,480 Okay the rows of neuro melanin this dark pigment. 55 00:06:54,480 --> 00:07:04,040 It's an antioxidant properties. Neuro melanin is our greatest defense to environmental toxins. 56 00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:10,880 It binds metals. This is a huge topic in current autism. 57 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:15,880 It's well established. It is well recognized and accepted. 58 00:07:15,880 --> 00:07:22,920 That environmental toxins cause autism or increase the risk of autism. 59 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:30,400 But what's missing is what's changed. A top topic in autism research. 60 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:37,160 It binds to atom and ions. And it makes it less reactive. 61 00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:41,280 Less toxic. Less harmful. 62 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:48,400 Other ways of describing this are binding or sequestering. 63 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:55,880 This allows detox of the cells. Thereby it's a neuro protection. 64 00:07:55,880 --> 00:08:07,800 A common and a region of interest for health is ROS reactive oxygen species or redox. 65 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:17,360 Okay so a lot here and we cannot cover this. ROS is a very linksy discussion. 66 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:29,000 But ROS can be harmful to mitochondria and cells and proteins, lipids and DNA. 67 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:35,720 Next is free radicals. This is of interest. We've covered some free radicals when discussing 68 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:43,560 blue light, teculite and or isolated wavelengths of light. 69 00:08:43,560 --> 00:08:52,280 The primary region of interest here. The primary region of interest for modern health. 70 00:08:52,280 --> 00:09:01,000 Next for melanin is a neuronal regulation. Another easy connection especially with dopamine. 71 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:10,840 Also electrons, the energy source from earlier. What powers the powerhouses? 72 00:09:10,840 --> 00:09:18,560 For cytochrome c-oxidase. Reverse engineer the ATP process to the electron transport 73 00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:24,400 chain. To those cycles pumping out enzymes and ions and so forth. 74 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:35,640 All the way back to pyruvate and TCA cycle, nurek acid. Which is a very hot topic in Parkinson's. 75 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:43,600 Just reverse this final output of the mitochondria, the ATP, in this back track and you can find 76 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:52,600 implications here from the loss of environmental signals from the loss of transduction. 77 00:09:52,600 --> 00:10:02,760 And remember chromophores. The red light chromophores on cytochrome c-oxidase and the vitamin D receptors. 78 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:12,720 More and more on this light topic. And humanity has seen rapid changes in light over the past 79 00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:24,440 130 years. The question is, what do you think light is? 80 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:35,600 Think about it. Are we using the way we evolved? Or have we changed light as a convenience? 81 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:49,320 What do you think light is? And is it the same today versus evolution of life on earth? 82 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:57,200 This is so simple. If you understand Dr. Jack Kruse's orange tree example. 83 00:10:57,200 --> 00:11:04,600 If you buck the sun from an orange tree, will it produce the same amount of fruit? And even 84 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:13,280 if the production of the fruit and also for the oranges coming in being bloomed, will those 85 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:19,600 be fully developed? Or maybe they're not fully developed? 86 00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:28,040 I use an example of this in the episode with Dr. Richard Frye when we discussed understanding 87 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:35,800 the roles and sensitivity of mitochondrial functioning. And I use this example for describing 88 00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:43,240 autism and Alzheimer's. And there's a short on YouTube that you can find if you're interested. 89 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:53,480 In this. With neuro melanin, with Parkinson's, hypoxia of these pigmented neurons break 90 00:11:53,480 --> 00:12:03,400 down melanin. The source, the power and the electrons. This creates a loss of dopamine. 91 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:12,880 Now, it's common that people think Parkinson's is a loss of dopamine. And that's true. But 92 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:19,960 research often misses the neuro melanin aspect of this, this component of this biological 93 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:28,120 energy, these biological concepts. So let's go upstream in the biological path. 94 00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:36,160 The eyes, hair and skin. This is the starting points, the starting lines. Think about this 95 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:46,000 in a linear path. If the first domino doesn't hit the next, what happens? 96 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:54,120 The eyes, we have melanin here. Of course we do. Lots of melanin. We have melanopsin. 97 00:12:54,120 --> 00:13:03,120 And we have the retinal pigmental epithel, or RPE. With this linear path, the goal here 98 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:11,120 for this energy transduction is to remain efficient and powerful down the line, down 99 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:21,240 the path. To answer the question earlier, what is light? Melanin is chosen here because 100 00:13:21,240 --> 00:13:32,560 it is a dark pigment and absorbs all frequency of light. In the summer, if you go outside 101 00:13:32,560 --> 00:13:39,840 anywhere black versus white, there's going to be a big difference, a noticeable difference. 102 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:46,800 This is why the pupil is black. This is why Mother Nature chose neuro melanin for this 103 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:59,240 role. Melanin and the pupil are black to receive the full light frequencies. So light is electromagnetic 104 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:10,560 field containing a wave and a particle, a photon, a wave particle duality. Waves have 105 00:14:10,560 --> 00:14:21,160 the information, photons carry the energy. In the linear example of the photon, or photons, 106 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:30,240 getting the first domino, the eye, skin or hair has to be, it must be, as much power 107 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:42,720 as possible, to power the downstream processes. Biologically, this is how we make the dopamine, 108 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:50,040 serotonin, proteins, whatever the example like these you want to use. Vitamin D is a 109 00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:58,520 popular example. Most people understand sunlight and vitamin D. You can see the cause of autism 110 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:06,880 episode for more detail on this and also autism and gastrointestinal problems episode. There's 111 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:16,440 a lot of this transduction happening in the gut. Artificial light versus sunlight is the 112 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:27,160 cause. UV light wavelengths keep the melanin and dopamine optimized in the mid-bring. The 113 00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:37,080 Substantia Nigra for this Parkinson's discussion. Tyrosine is an aromatic amino acid. Remember 114 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:47,840 those UV light wavelengths? Do you think artificial light is optimizing these biological processes? 115 00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:57,080 Don't miss the wavelengths throughout the light spectrum. This is why I ask, what do you think 116 00:15:57,080 --> 00:16:08,240 light is? This is also occurring on the skin with melanocytes. Something well known in autism 117 00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:19,520 research is thyroid and the correlation with the risk. Thyroid is tyrosine and iodine. Iodine 118 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:26,520 is well established in autism as well. This is hitting us right in the face. Thyroid and 119 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:34,080 Parkinson's is similar. There are strong data here. People with hypothyroidism have an increased 120 00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:43,800 risk of Parkinson's. Mothers with hypothyroidism, their offspring will have a higher risk of autism. 121 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:51,120 This is all right here in front of us. We have all of these siloed data and research studies, 122 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:57,960 but we cannot connect them because we don't go upstream. Because research has this centralized 123 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:07,360 framework and it's very confusing. Now in our modern world, the thyroid is a pretty frequent lab 124 00:17:07,360 --> 00:17:18,760 test because the rates of thyroid are increasing. It's pretty common to find people, especially 125 00:17:18,760 --> 00:17:26,640 adults, with hypothyroidism. We can think about the hypothalamus as the control center for the 126 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:34,000 body's hormones and then it communicates to the pituitary. Based off of these lab tests, 127 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:44,840 you're probably even familiar in your own medical history. You know about T3 and T4. The 3 and the 128 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:57,480 4 represents iodine. So the T3 is tyrosine, tyroxine, and iodine. If you look up autism research, 129 00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:08,640 one of the ways to mitigate the risk of autism is to supplement iodine. Another way that we 130 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:18,520 mitigate risk factors for autism are supplementing with things like tyroxine, medication. This is 131 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:27,960 well established and it works. It mitigates the risk of autism when the mother is supplementing 132 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:40,120 with these medications. So the important part here is the rows of T3, the rows of the thyroid with 133 00:18:40,120 --> 00:18:48,600 neuronal function and motor function. This is well established, but I don't think it's well 134 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:59,480 understood or appreciated. So the rows of T3 here for brain development, this is during the 135 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:09,440 fetal development. During fetal development and even in through early childhood, this T3 is critical 136 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:20,680 for brain growth. It has a big influence on cell differentiation and migration. Remember the episode 137 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:29,120 on autism and the embryo and the episode covering the placenta. This is a key region of interest 138 00:19:29,120 --> 00:19:39,280 here. This is going to be when autism is developing in the living organism. So the T3 with 139 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:48,000 the differentiation and migration, autism research has well established data on these being a problem 140 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:58,880 in autism. In addition, T3's role with maturation of neurons, also another well established data 141 00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:08,920 point in autism. Now the overarching goal here with this process, building the brain development 142 00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:17,160 is for cognitive functions. We think about autism, it's underdeveloped, it's a neurodevelopmental 143 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:29,360 problem. T3 also helps with neuronal activity. So once the cell, the neuron is formed, T3 regulates 144 00:20:29,360 --> 00:20:37,000 the gene expression in the neuron and this affects neurotransmitter synthesis and receptor 145 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:45,280 expression and synaptic plasticity. All of these things are well established in the autism data. 146 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:55,040 T3 also acts as a neuro protector, similar to the neuro melanin and T3 has roles with 147 00:20:55,040 --> 00:21:06,040 reducing oxidative stress and aiding in repair processes after cell injury. T3 has roles with 148 00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:14,560 metabolism and energy, which is well established. Delay public likely knows this. However, it's 149 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:23,680 the metabolic rate of the neurons influencing the energy availability for the neuronal firing 150 00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:32,720 and maintaining of the neuronal health, cell health. These are all have big implications 151 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:40,160 with the synaptic transmission as well. And the gene expression. So if you're thinking 152 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:47,640 T3 and the pituitary and the hypothyroidism, that's all associated with hormones and that's 153 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:55,080 correct. T3 acts as a connector, like a node here that's connecting the hormones and all 154 00:21:55,080 --> 00:22:02,560 of these growth factors and the neuronal activity. Now if you go downstream with these implications, 155 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:07,920 it's easier for the lay public and will just anybody to observe these, you might think of 156 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:16,600 them as such as cognitive impairments or mood swings, some neurological symptoms even. One 157 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:23,480 might go to the doctor and say, I just haven't been feeling well. My energy is low. I'm irritable. 158 00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:29,800 And they will do lab work. And they well indeed, it'll show your TSH might be seven or eight 159 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:35,360 or nine or whatever it is. And then they'll put you on and you might be prescribed a couple 160 00:22:35,360 --> 00:22:43,920 of micrograms, 7500 micrograms of this medication. Now you can also understand the relationship 161 00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:53,360 here with the motor functioning. At the upstream level here, everything's related to cell health, 162 00:22:53,360 --> 00:23:02,400 the development of cells. If we lack energy, the cell lacks energy. So it's always coming 163 00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:13,000 back to the lack of or the loss of energy. For autism, this is happening in the womb 164 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:22,200 early in development on this linear timeline. And we can move this out, stretch the timeline 165 00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:30,320 across these basal ganglia areas and understand the problems here with the efficiency of this 166 00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:38,320 pathway. Something that's looking at us right in the face with this data are the environment 167 00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:47,240 of the pregnant mother has changed drastically. The rates of autism matches the type of environment. 168 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:53,160 The mothers are in and it's not a direct shot at the mother. It's just the modern world, 169 00:23:53,160 --> 00:24:01,400 the modern environment. We are losing energy to the environment. Now if you talk to a researcher 170 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:06,400 on mitochondria, they might think, yeah, it's a mitochondrial dysfunction, but they 171 00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:12,440 might not know why. And that's not a shot against them either. It's just the centralized 172 00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:19,040 framework that determines which lens are we looking through? What are we looking at? What 173 00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:26,400 are we looking for? It's very siloed. It's very narrow. It almost lacks depth if I had 174 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:36,240 to sum it up. Now remember thyroid, row, and the biosynthesis of tyrosine here as well. 175 00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:44,640 I cannot harp on this enough. Remember the biosynthesis of tyrosine making thyroxine 176 00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:52,160 and making al-dopa, which is common with the Parkinson's theme and making dopamine and 177 00:24:52,160 --> 00:25:02,760 epinephrine and melanin. Melanin is the missing row here. It's the underrated row. Remember 178 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:10,240 melanin's row with water. So the mitochondria is here once again. And the regions with this 179 00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:16,960 most neuro melanin are centered in the midbrain areas that contains lots of other water in 180 00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:28,000 the brain. The melanin and water interaction equals more electrons. Remember light changes 181 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:37,160 the physics of water. This is what it is all about. Electrons and the environmental signals. 182 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:45,000 And remember the water being produced out of mitochondria. As we age, roughly each decade 183 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:53,240 of life, we lose roughly 10% of the water being produced in mitochondria. And this occurs 184 00:25:53,240 --> 00:26:02,040 across the lifespan. 10% roughly every 10 years. So we are losing energy naturally. This 185 00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:10,960 is entropy. This is senescence. This is life, aging and life. Check this with hetero plasmy. 186 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:19,480 If you want a good marker, a good biological marker, look into hetero plasmy. Now with 187 00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:27,520 disease and other insults and such, we can lose more frequency of water. This rate can 188 00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:36,560 be increased. Now you can even begin to understand the other neurodegenerative problems and why 189 00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:44,000 the rates of these are increasing. Okay, I said in a previous episode because we are 190 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:50,080 covering the basal ganglia quite extensively here. I would cover the direct pathway and 191 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:58,000 the indirect pathway in the basal ganglia. So I'll do that now. Quick recap on the basal 192 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:05,880 ganglia. There are five subcortical nuclei all working together to orchestrate movements. 193 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:15,080 The basal ganglia is our go, no go areas. And this is where motivation and movements converge. 194 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:22,040 But remember, the definition of motivation here is not defined by us and our ability 195 00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:29,480 to think and create. With our human cortex, motivation here is defined by the specific 196 00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:36,280 living organism. The nervous system just wants to respond. So that is the definition 197 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:41,800 that you need to consider for motivation. The nervous system is just going to respond 198 00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:52,120 based off of what it knows. This is a very different definition of motivation. So remember 199 00:27:52,120 --> 00:27:59,640 the five subcortical areas. There are inputs, so the cadet nucleus and the pudiment. And 200 00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:08,600 then we have the globus pallidus internal and globus pallidus external. These form a 201 00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:19,360 triangle, two separate nuclei forming a triangle. And we also have the subthalamic nucleus, 202 00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:25,200 which is the personal assistant essentially to the thalamus. And of course the substantiate 203 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:34,200 nigra, the two nuclei here, the reticulata and the compacta. So these are all orchestrating 204 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:41,360 movements based off of the environmental signals and the perception of the living organism's 205 00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:49,320 nervous system. We are orchestrating movements here. The direct pathway is trying to facilitate 206 00:28:49,320 --> 00:29:00,400 movements by reducing inhibitory outputs from these basal ganglia nuclei into the thalamus. 207 00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:08,400 This will send a signal up to the cortex for responses deemed necessary or efficient or 208 00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:19,280 practical, useful for the living organism. The start is neurons from the cortex. Of 209 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:24,360 various areas of the cortex and some from the thalamus and some from the substantiate 210 00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:31,280 nigra providing dopamine. These inputs are not exhaustive, but just kind of to explain 211 00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:38,800 the pathway. The direct pathway acts as more of the goal signal. So we are receiving excitatory 212 00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:46,840 dopamine from the substantiate nigra. This is D1 like dopamine, excitatory. The dorsal 213 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:54,520 striatum then will communicate with the globus pallidus internal and the substantiate nigra 214 00:29:54,520 --> 00:30:04,160 reticulata. It communicates to these two subdivisions by inhibiting them. It puts a break on them. 215 00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:10,680 Because the roles of the globus pallidus internal and the substantiate nigra reticulata is normally 216 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:18,280 to interact with the thalamus. So the dorsal striatum will shut these two nuclei off and 217 00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:24,920 that frees up the thalamus. And the thalamus being less inhibited can then communicate 218 00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:34,200 back to the cortex, exciting the cortex and promoting movements. This pathway removes 219 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:44,880 the break, removes the no-go side. The indirect pathway is a little bit more communication. 220 00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:52,000 It inhibits or kind of slows down movements, acting as a break. So one is a go side and 221 00:30:52,000 --> 00:31:01,280 one is a no-go side. Similar to the direct pathway, signals come in to the input area, 222 00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:09,000 the cadet and the containment, from the cortex and the thalamus and the midbrain. The dorsal 223 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:18,760 striatum will then speak to the globus pallidus external and it will inhibit the external area. 224 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:28,240 By inhibiting the globus pallidus external, it will free up the subthalamic nucleus. It 225 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:36,400 allows this area to be more active. The subthalamic nucleus will then speak to the globus pallidus 226 00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:43,760 internal and the substantia nigra reticulata, essentially giving them free will, giving 227 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:53,200 them a go ahead signal to activate. Remember the direct pathway inhibited these. So here 228 00:31:53,200 --> 00:32:00,880 we are exciting these two areas. The globus pallidus internal and the substantia nigra 229 00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:07,920 reticulata then speaks to the thalamus, the main goal. And these two nuclei to the thalamus 230 00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:19,440 says stop. This is a no-go. And because the thalamus is inhibited or stopped, it can suppress 231 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:29,680 or even slow down movements. It controls the movements. The indirect pathway is the no-go. 232 00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:38,440 And it uses the D2 like dopamine, the inhibitory dopamine. What the basal ganglia is trying 233 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:44,640 to accomplish here is fine tuning of motor control. Remember the goal of the central 234 00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:54,480 nervous system is designed to move the living organism. What these two pathways are doing 235 00:32:54,480 --> 00:33:01,960 is fine tuning of that motor control, this action selection. And remember the dorsal 236 00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:13,680 striatum is an area where go directed movements and behaviors are located and also habit formation. 237 00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:21,640 More habits reside here. There's a lot of communication from sensory motor regions and 238 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:31,040 the dorsal lateral side of the striatum, the DLS. Whereas the go directed resides more 239 00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:40,280 in the dorsal medial striatum, which is more cadet. So cadet is more go direction and the 240 00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:47,440 putamen is more habit formation. It's where habits live. And that's the goal of the central 241 00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:57,560 nervous system though. We want to build learning and then send those down into habits. And 242 00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:04,800 these areas of the basal ganglia and this direct pathway and indirect pathway, this is 243 00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:13,440 how we can grasp our motor signals being processed and leading to how we coordinate downstream 244 00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:23,920 behaviors downstream movements. Now Parkinson's here is a loss of timing and loss of energy. 245 00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:30,200 Now with everything with the substantia nigra compacta and reticulata, you can start to 246 00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:37,880 understand why the substantia nigra here losing energy, losing its ability, its efficiency. 247 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:47,040 It cannot conduct this pathway correctly. It loses its ability to coordinate these two 248 00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:54,560 direct pathway and indirect pathway. And if you think about it with all the, with the 249 00:34:54,560 --> 00:35:01,840 motor movements associated with Parkinson's and autism, this is pretty common and easy 250 00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:10,600 to understand here. The substantia nigra is lacking here and all of these downstream processes 251 00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:21,080 are off. So with autism, we get these stereotyped motor movements and stimming and repetitive 252 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:29,520 restricted behaviors and so forth. In both Parkinson's and autism, it's easy to see. 253 00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:36,000 We love it when we can see things and observe and evaluate things. It's easy to see the 254 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:43,680 motor movements here, the abnormal motor movements. In autism, it's well established that there's 255 00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:53,360 an increase of this D2 like dopamine facilitated through the dorsal striata and is implicated 256 00:35:53,360 --> 00:36:02,280 in the indirect pathway. We cannot inhibit motor movements. And over time, remember the 257 00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:10,000 discussions on neuroplasticity. These motor movements can actually become calming. We 258 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:16,840 learn how to do these for calming and they also remember the habit formation. We do these 259 00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:24,520 out of habit now. The more we do things, the easier it is to form the habit, which is the 260 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:29,120 goal of the central nervous system because it doesn't want to work. It just wants to 261 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:37,200 respond. And considering that the substantia nigra is not optimized, the transduction is 262 00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:46,560 not capable. It's loss of energy is very implicated here. This is what it's all about. If you 263 00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:52,400 look at go versus no go and put them on a seesaw, the fulcrum there, the thing that 264 00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:59,000 is balancing on is the substantia nigra and the dopamine coming out of the substantia nigra 265 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:09,000 and into these other nuclei facilitating these movements. If you are listening to the episode 266 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:16,120 or listening to the podcast, please feel free to leave a review or rating. In podcasting, 267 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:21,800 reviews, ratings and downloads are huge. And I very much appreciate your feedback. You 268 00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:31,940 can contact me on X at RPS 47586 and we can discuss anything about autism. I very much 269 00:37:31,940 --> 00:37:37,960 appreciate your comments and interaction. You can check out the hop link so you can have 270 00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:45,160 links to all of the shows across various podcasts. You can contact me on YouTube. Check out the 271 00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:52,320 YouTube channel and tick tock. I guess I'll try out tick tock. I'll see how that goes. 272 00:37:52,320 --> 00:38:18,680 I don't love it. But anyways, thank you for listening to From the Spectrum podcast.