Substantia nigra

The substantia nigra is a part of the brain. This is the part of the midbrain that produces dopamine involved in movement. It is involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's Disease.

Brain: Substantia nigra
Substantia nigra highlighted in red.
Section through superior colliculus showing substantia nigra.
Latin	substantia nigra
Part of	Midbrain, basal ganglia
Acronym(s)	SN

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.

Substantia Nigra Media

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  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

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  Diagram of the main components of the basal ganglia and their interconnections

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  Substantia nigra with loss of cells and Lewy body pathology

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  Degradation of substantia nigra associated with Parkinson's disease.

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  Horizontal MRI (T1 weighted) slice with highlighting indicating location of the substantia nigra.

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  Enhanced Neuromelanin MRI with Color images (RGB) showing Substantia nigra pars compacta

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  One of the important structures of the brain is a Substantia Nigra, that participates in the control of motor function.