For today's episode, we will cover autism and
Parkinson's. A major region of interest for both
autism and Parkinson's is the basal ganglia.
And sticking with this theme, we will cover some
more basal ganglia, specifically the substantia
nigra. The substantia nigra is in the midbrain,
sometimes called the mesencephalon, sometimes
called the tegmentum, and sometimes referred
to as a region of the brain stem. Essentially,
the substantia nigra is towards the top of the
brain stem. The translation of substantia nigra
is black substance or black matter. This is because
of the neuromelanin. Remember neuromelanin's
roles, and it is black. Because it is black,
it receives all frequencies of light. Mother
Nature uses it because it is black. It was selected
for specific roles. Before I say the roles, this
is true with the locus coeruleus as well. Same
area and same black substance. Same cause for
the black, neuromelanin. Remember the locus coeruleus
for epinephrine and norepinephrine? You could
call it brain adrenaline. And that internal calculator
we covered with the astrocytes, a type of glia
cell. This internal calculator that we covered
was calculating effort versus outcome. And if
the outcome does not match, the glia shuts the
locus coeruleus off. So melanin, the synthesis
of melanin comes from tyrosine, an aromatic amino
acid, those GV light detectors, 200 nanometer
to 400 nanometer light. and tyrosine peaks at
280 nanometer, the strongest wavelength that
arrives on terrestrial land from the sun. 280
nanometer light starts the UVB range, which is
280 nanometer to 315. Remember nanometer. There's
1 ,000 nanometers in one micron. one millimeter.
And a sheet of paper is 80 to 90 microns, 80
to 90 millimeters. These are very small and it
fits the theme because of how small, how upstream
we are going into our biology. The reason I say
that is this is upstream. as we can think about
going, at least for humans and our ability to
measure and see things. This is quantum biology.
Environmental signals. How living organisms on
Earth are created. The sources of energy. How
cells receive energy. Which provides energy.
to the living organism. At the atomic level,
how the powerhouses of the cells, remember the
mitochondria, how the powerhouses of the cells
receive the energy, the powers to power the powerhouses.
Cells respond to environmental signals. Remember
the two episodes on mitochondria and remember
the cause of autism episode. Water production
is coming from cytochrome c -oxidase, and a decrease
of this water production from the mitochondria
equals less energy. This is huge for today's
topic. Autism is underdeveloped cells. Parkinson's
is that process running in reverse. Cells die
because they lose energy. Melanin drives transduction.
A transfer of energy from the environment into
and through our biology. That's it. That's all
you need to know about this. That's all you need
to know about autism. If you can't go here, if
you don't allow yourself to go here and allow
yourself to understand this, you won't understand
anything with our health and life. You will not
understand autism. You might think that the research
in autism is pretty lost. It seems like there's
so much to cover. It seems... Like we're not
getting anywhere. And this is true. Centralized
autism research misses this in large part. It
misses there is no power to the so -called powerhouse
of the cell. And if you think about an infective
fix, the treatment for Parkinson's is deep brain
stimulation. An electrode placed in these areas
to supplement the loss of energy. Energy lost
from our modern environments that neglect the
environment we evolved under. Humans do this
and no other species will do this. Okay, the
rose of neuromelanin, this dark, Pigment. It's
an antioxidant properties. Neuromelanin is our
greatest defense to environmental toxins. It
binds metals. This is a huge topic in current
autism. It's well established. It is well recognized
and accepted that environmental toxins cause
autism or increase the risk of autism. But what's
missing is what's changed. A top topic in autism
research. It binds to atom and ions and it makes
it less reactive, less toxic, less harmful. Other
ways of describing this are binding or sequestering.
This allows detox of the cells. Thereby, it's
a neuro protection. A common and a region of
interest for health is ROS, reactive oxygen species,
or redox. Okay, so a lot here and we cannot cover
this. ROS is a very lengthy discussion. But ROS
can be harmful to mitochondria and cells and
proteins, lipids, and DNA. Next is free radicals.
This is of interest. We've covered some free
radicals when discussing blue light, tech light,
and or isolated wavelengths of light. The primary
region of interest here the primary region of
interest for modern health. Next for melanin
is a neuronal regulation. Another easy connection,
especially with dopamine. Also, electrons, the
energy source from earlier. What powers the powerhouses?
Remember, cytochrome sea oxidase. Reverse engineer
the ATP process to the electron transport chain,
to those cycles pumping out enzymes and ions
and so forth, all the way back to pyruvate and
TCA cycle, and uric acid, which is a very hot
topic in Parkinson's. Just reverse this final
output of the mitochondria, the ATP, and just
backtrack, and you can find implications here
from the loss of environmental signals, from
the loss of transduction. And remember chromophores.
The red light chromophores on cytochrome c -oxidase
and the vitamin D receptors. More and more on
this light topic. And humanity has seen rapid,
rapid changes in light. over the past 130 years.
The question is, what do you think light is?
Think about it. Are we using the way we evolved
or have we changed light as a convenience? What
do you think light is? And is it the same today
versus evolution of life on earth? This is so
simple if you understand Dr. Jack Cruz's orange
tree example. If you block the sun from an orange
tree, will it produce the same amount of fruit?
And even if the production of the fruit and also
for the oranges coming in being bloomed. Will
those be fully developed or maybe they're not
fully developed? I use an example of this in
the episode with Dr. Richard Fry when we discuss
understanding the roles and sensitivity of mitochondrial
functioning. And I use this example for describing
autism and Alzheimer's. There's a short on YouTube
that you can find if you're interested in this.
With neuromelanin, with Parkinson's, hypoxia
of these pigmented neurons break down melanin.
The source, the power, and the electrons. This
creates a loss of dopamine. Now, it's common
that people think Parkinson's is a loss of dopamine,
and that's true. But research often misses the
neuromelanin aspect of this, this component of
this biological energy, these biological concepts.
So let's go upstream in the biological path.
The eyes, hair, and skin. This is the starting
points, the starting lines. Think about this
in a linear path. If the first domino doesn't
hit the next, what happens? The eyes, we have
melanin here. Of course we do, lots of melanin.
We have melanopsin and we have the retinal pigment
epithelium or RPE. With this linear path, the
goal here for this energy transduction is to
remain efficient. and powerful down the line,
down the path. To answer the question earlier,
what is light? Melanin is chosen here because
it is a dark pigment and absorbs all frequency
of light. In the summer, if you go outside and
you wear black versus white, there's going to
be a big difference, a noticeable difference.
This is why the pupil is black. This is why Mother
Nature chose neuromelanin for this role. Melanin
and the pupil are black to receive the full light
frequencies. So light is electromagnetic field
containing a wave and a particle. A photon. A
wave -particle duality. Waves have the information.
Photons carry the energy. In the linear example
of the photon, or photons, hitting the first
domino, the eye, skin or hair, has to be. It
must be as much power as possible. to power the
downstream processes. Biologically, this is how
we make the dopamine, serotonin, proteins, whatever
the example like these you want to use. Vitamin
D is a popular example. Most people understand
sunlight and vitamin D. You can see the Cause
of Autism episode for more detail on this and
also Autism and Gastrointestinal Problems episode.
There's a lot of this transduction happening
in the gut. Artificial light versus sunlight
is the cause. UV light wavelengths keep the melanin
and dopamine optimized in the midbrain. The Substantia
Nigra for this Parkinson's discussion. Tyrosine
is an aromatic amino acid. Remember those UV
light wavelengths. Do you think artificial light
is optimizing these biological processes? Don't
miss the wavelengths throughout the light spectrum.
This is why I ask, what do you think light is?
This is also occurring on the skin with melanocytes.
Something well known in autism research is thyroid
and the correlation with the risk. Thyroid is
tyrosine and iodine. Iodine is well established
in autism as well. This is hitting us right in
the face. Thyroid in Parkinson's is similar.
There are strong data here. People with hypothyroidism
have an increased risk of Parkinson's. Mothers
with hypothyroidism, their offspring will have
a higher risk of autism. This is all right here
in front of us. We have all of these siloed data
and research studies, but we cannot connect them
because we don't go upstream. Because research
has this centralized framework. And it's very
confusing. Now, in our modern world, the thyroid
is a pretty frequent lab test because the rates
of thyroid are increasing. It's pretty common
to find people, especially adults, with hypothyroidism.
And we can think about the hypothalamus as the
control center for the body's hormones. and then
it communicates to the pituitary. And based off
of these lab tests, you're probably even familiar
in your own medical history. You know about T3
and T4. The 3 and the 4 represents iodine. So
the T3 is tyrosine, tyroxine, and iodine. If
you look up autism research, One of the ways
to mitigate the risk of autism is to supplement
iodine. Another way that we mitigate risk factors
for autism are supplementing with things like
thyroxine, medication. And this is well established
and it works. It mitigates the risk of autism
when the mother supplementing with these medications.
So the important part here is the roles of T3.
The roles of the thyroid with neuronal function
and motor function. This is well established,
but I don't think it's well understood or appreciated.
So the roles of T3 here. for brain development.
This is during the fetal development. During
fetal development and even in through early childhood,
this T3 is critical for brain growth. It has
a big influence on cell differentiation and migration.
Remember the episode on autism and the embryo.
and the episode covering the placenta. This is
a key region of interest here. This is going
to be when autism is developing in the living
organism. So the T3 with the differentiation
and migration, autism research has well established
data on these being a problem in autism. In addition,
T3's role with maturation of neurons, also another
well -established data point in autism. Now the
overarching goal here with this process, building
the brain development, is for cognitive functions.
We think about autism, it's underdeveloped, it's
a neurodevelopmental problem. T3 also helps with
neuronal activity. So once the cell, the neuron,
is formed, T3 regulates the gene expression in
the neuron. And this affects neurotransmitter
synthesis and receptor expression and synaptic
plasticity. All of these things are well established
in the autism data. T3 also acts as a neuro protector
similar to the neuromelanin and T3 has roles
with reducing oxidative stress and aiding and
repair processes after cell injury. T3 has roles
with metabolism and energy which is well established.
The lay public likely knows this. However, it's
the metabolic rate of the neurons. influencing
the energy availability for the neuronal firing
and maintaining of the neuronal health, cell
health. These all have big implications with
the synaptic transmission as well. And the gene
expression. So if you're thinking T3 and the
pituitary and the hypothyroidism, that's all
associated with hormones. And that's correct.
T3 acts as a connector, like a node here that's
connecting the hormones and all of these growth
factors and the neuronal activity. Now, if you
go downstream with these implications, it's easier
for the lay public and just anybody to observe
these. You might think of them as such as cognitive
impairments or mood swings, some neurological
symptoms even. One might go to the doctor and
say I just haven't been feeling well. My energy
is low I'm irritable and they will do lab work
and then well indeed it'll show your TSH might
be seven or eight or nine or whatever it is and
then they'll put you on and You might be prescribed
a couple of micrograms seventy five hundred micrograms
of this medication Now you can also understand
the relationship here with the motor functioning
At the upstream level here, everything's related
to cell health, the development of cells. If
we lack energy, the cell lacks energy. So it's
always coming back to the lack of or the loss
of energy. For autism, this is happening in the
womb, early in development, on this linear timeline.
and we can move this out, stretch the timeline
across these basal ganglia areas and understand
the problems here with the efficiency of this
pathway. Something that's looking at us right
in the face with this data are the environment
of the pregnant mother has changed drastically.
The rates of autism matches the type of environment
The mothers are in, and it's not a direct shot
at the mother. It's just the modern world, the
modern environment. We are losing energy to the
environment. Now, if you talk to a researcher
on mitochondria, they might think, yeah, it's
a mitochondrial dysfunction, but they might not
know why. And that's not a shot against them
either. It's just the centralized framework that
determines which lens. Are we looking through?
What are we looking at? What are we looking for?
It's very siloed. It's very narrow. It almost
lacks depth, if I had to sum it up. Now, remember
thyroid, row, and the biosynthesis of tyrosine
here as well. I cannot harp on this enough. Remember
the biosynthesis of tyrosine making thyroxine
and making L -Dopa which is common with the Parkinson's
theme and making dopamine and epinephrine and
norepinephrine and melanin. Melanin is the missing
role here. It's the underrated role. Remember
melanin's role with water. So the mitochondria
is here once again and the regions with this
most neuromelanin are centered in the midbrain.
areas that contains lots of other water in the
brain. The melanin -water interaction equals
more electrons. Remember, light changes the physics
of water. This is what it is all about. Electrons
and the environmental signals. And remember the
water being produced out of mitochondria. As
we age, Roughly each decade of life, we lose
roughly 10 % of the water being produced in mitochondria.
And this occurs across the lifespan. 10 % roughly
every 10 years. So we are losing energy naturally.
This is entropy. This is senescence. This is
life, aging and life. Check this with heteroplasmy.
If you want to... good marker, a good biological
marker. Look into heteroplasmy. Now, with disease
and other insults and such, we can lose more
frequency of water. This rate can be increased.
Now you can even begin to understand the other
neurodegenerative problems and why the rates
of these are increasing. Okay. I said in a previous
episode because we're covering the basal ganglia
quite extensively here. I would cover the direct
pathway and the indirect pathway in the basal
ganglia. So I'll do that now. Quick recap on
the basal ganglia. There are five subcortical
nuclei all working together to orchestrate movements.
The basal ganglia is our goal, no goal areas.
And this is where motivation and movements converge.
But remember, the definition of motivation here
is not defined by us and our ability to think
and create. With our human cortex, motivation
here is defined by the specific living organism.
The nervous system just wants to respond. So
that is the definition that you need to consider
for motivation. The nervous system is it's going
to respond based off of what it knows. This is
a very different definition of motivation. So
remember the five subcortical areas. There are
inputs. So the cadet nucleus and the putamen.
And then we have the globus pallidus internal
and globus pallidus external. These form a triangle.
two separate nuclei forming a triangle. And we
also have the subthalamic nucleus, which is the
personal assistant essentially to the thalamus.
And of course the substantia nigra, the two nuclei
here, the reticulata and the compacta. So these
are all orchestrating movements based off of
the environmental signals and the perception
of the living organism's nervous system. We are
orchestrating movements here. The direct pathway
is trying to facilitate movements by reducing
inhibitory outputs from these basal ganglia nuclei
into the thalamus. This will send a signal up
to the cortex for responses deemed necessary
or efficient or practical, useful for the living
organism. The start is neurons from the cortex
of various areas of the cortex and some from
the thalamus and some from the substantia nigra
providing dopamine. These inputs are not exhaustive,
but just kind of to explain the pathway. The
direct pathway acts as more of the goal signal.
So we're receiving excitatory dopamine from the
substantia nigra. This is D1 -like dopamine,
excitatory. The dorsal striatum then will communicate
with the globus pallidus internal and the substantia
nigra reticulata. It communicates to these two
subdivisions by inhibiting them. It puts a break
on them because the roles of the globus pallidus
internal and the substantia nigra reticulata
is normally to interact with the thalamus. So
the dorsal striatum will shut these two nuclei
off, and that frees up the thalamus. And the
thalamus, being less inhibited, can then communicate
back to the cortex, exciting the cortex and promoting
movements. This pathway removes the break, removes
the no -go side. The indirect pathway is a little
bit more communication. It inhibits or kind of
slows down movements, acting as a brake. So one
is a go side and one is a no -go side. Similar
to the direct pathway, signals come in to the
input area, the conduct and containment from
the cortex. and the thalamus and the midbrain.
The dorsal striatum will then speak to the globus
pallidus external, and it will inhibit the external
area. By inhibiting the globus pallidus external,
it will free up the subthalamic nucleus. It allows
this area to be more active. Then the subthalamic
nucleus will then speak to the Globus Pallidus
internal, and the Substantia Nigra reticulata,
essentially giving them free will, giving them
a go -ahead signal to activate. Remember, the
direct pathway inhibited these, so here we are
exciting these two areas. The Globus Pallidus
internal and the Substantia Nigra reticulata
then speaks to the thalamus. The main goal. And
these two nuclei to the thalamus says, stop.
This is a no -go. And because the thalamus is
inhibited or stopped, it can suppress or even
slow down movements. It controls the movements.
The indirect pathway is the no -go. And it uses
the D2 -like dopamine. the inhibitory dopamine.
What the basal ganglia is trying to accomplish
here is fine -tuning of motor control. Remember
the goal of the central nervous system. It's
designed to move the living organism. What these
two pathways are doing is fine -tuning of that
motor control, this action selection. And remember
the dorsal striatum is an area where goal -directed
movements and behaviors are located and also
habit formation. Our habits reside here. There's
a lot of communication from sensory motor regions
and the dorsal lateral side of the striatum,
the DLS. Whereas the goal -directed resides more
in the dorsal medial striatum, which is more
cadet. So cadet is more go direction, and the
pertainment is more habit formation. It's where
habits live. And that's the goal of the central
nervous system, though. We want to build learning
and then send those down into habits. And these
areas of the basal ganglia and this direct pathway
and indirect pathway, this is how we can grasp
our motor signals being processed and leading
to how we coordinate downstream behaviors, downstream
movements. Now Parkinson's here is a loss of
timing and loss of energy. Now with everything
with the substantia nigra, compacta and reticulata,
you can start to understand why. The substantia
nigra here, losing energy, losing its ability,
its efficiency, it cannot conduct this pathway
correctly. It loses its ability to coordinate
these two direct pathway and indirect pathway.
And if you think about it, with all the with
the motor movements associated with Parkinson's
and autism. This is pretty common and easy to
understand here. The substantia nigra is lacking
here and all of these downstream processes are
off. So with autism, we get these stereotyped
motor movements and stemming and repetitive restricted
behaviors and so forth. In both Parkinson's and
autism, it's easy to see. We love it when we
can see things and observe and evaluate things.
It's easy to see the motor movements here, the
abnormal motor movements. In autism, it's well
established that there's an increase of this
D2 -like dopamine facilitated through the dorsal
striata and it's implicated in the indirect pathway,
we cannot inhibit motor movements. And over time,
remember the discussions on neuroplasticity.
These motor movements can actually become calming.
We learn how to do these for calming. And they
also remember the habit formation. We do these
out of habit now. The more we do things, the
easier it is to form the habit, which is the
goal of the central nervous system. Because it
doesn't want to work, it just wants to respond.
And considering that the substantia nigra is
not optimized, the transduction is not capable.
Its loss of energy is very implicated here. This
is what it's all about. If you look at go versus
no -go and put them on a seesaw, The fulcrum
there, the thing that is balancing on, is the
substantia nigra and the dopamine coming out
of the substantia nigra and into these other
nuclei, facilitating these movements. If you
are listening to the episode or listening to
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your feedback. You can contact me on X at rps47586
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the Spectrum Podcast.