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(anatomy) A brain structure located in the mesencephalon (midbrain) that plays an important role in reward, addiction, and movement, damage to which occurs in Parkinson's and Parkinsonian patients.

Substantia nigra highlighted in red.

(anatomy) A brain structure located in the mesencephalon (midbrain) that plays an important role in reward, addiction, and movement, damage to which occurs in Parkinson's and Parkinsonian patients.

Coronal slices of human brain showing the basal ganglia, globus pallidus: external segment (GPe), subthalamic nucleus (STN), globus pallidus: internal segment (GPi), and substantia nigra (SN, red). The right section is the deeper one, closer to the back of the head

(anatomy) A brain structure located in the mesencephalon (midbrain) that plays an important role in reward, addiction, and movement, damage to which occurs in Parkinson's and Parkinsonian patients.

Anatomical overview of the main circuits of the basal ganglia, substantia nigra is shown in black. Picture shows 2 coronal slices that have been superimposed to include the involved basal ganglia structures. + and – signs at the point of the arrows indicate respectively whether the pathway is excitatory or inhibitory in effect. Green arrows refer to excitatory glutamatergic pathways, red arrows refer to inhibitory GABAergic pathways and turquoise arrows refer to dopaminergic pathways that are excitatory on the direct pathway and inhibitory on the indirect pathway.