The cerebellum ("little brain") is tucked underneath the basal ganglia; it sits in the back of the skull below the cerebrum. Source: CLIPAREA l Custom media/Shutterstock Neuroscientists have unearthed ...

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Columbia University and the University of San Francisco, have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism by which dopamine, a key brain chemical vital for movement ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- For years, the brain chemical dopamine has been thought of as the brain's "pleasure chemical," sending signals between brain cells in a way that rewards a person or animal for one ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- In his home office in Durham, Duke neuroscientist Richard Mooney shows a series of images of a bird’s brain on song. In one, what looks like a pointillist painting illustrates a young ...

New findings published in the journal Nature Neuroscience have shed light on a mysterious pathway between the reward center of the brain that is key to how we form habits, known as the basal ganglia, ...

We're all familiar with Pavlovian conditioning, in which a reward-anticipatory behavior follows a reward-predicting stimulus. Perhaps you experience it yourself when passing a cafe or restaurant and ...

The substantia nigra is a motor nucleus located in the basal ganglia of the midbrain. This brain structure contributes to the body's cognitive and motor functions by sending signals to initiate or ...

Parkinson's disease is most commonly treated with levodopa, but the benefits wear off as the disease progresses and high doses can result in dyskinesia, which are involuntary and uncontrollable ...