ABSTRACT
Dopamine is universally known as the neurotransmitter most intimately involved with Parkinson’s disease and the severe loss of this neurotransmitter has been shown to be associated with most of the primary symptoms of the disease. However, even though James Parkinson described the neurological disease named after him almost two centuries ago, it required the development of relatively modern techniques to identify dopamine as the critical neurotransmitter in Parkinson’s disease and to realize the consequent therapeutic advances that were based on this discovery. In this review, I have focused on the discoveries, both in animals and man, that presented us with the concept of a nigrostriatal pathway that uses dopamine as neurotransmitter, that plays a key role in control of motor function, and that is central to Parkinson’s disease. More detailed and personal accounts of some aspects of this subject are available.1,2 In addition, after dopamine became a focus of research related to Parkinson’s disease, many advances have been made concerning the dopamine receptors and the other neurotransmitter pathways involved in Parkinson’s disease. These subjects are covered in other chapters in this volume.
