Circuits of the basal ganglia in treatment of Parkinson's disease. Levodopa, dopamine agonists and MAO-B inhibitors stimulate excitatory signals from the thalamus to the cortex by effects on the striatum, compensating for decreased dopaminergic signals from substantia nigra (seen at bottom right). 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. Dis-inhibitory pathways are in effect excitatory on the feedback to the cortex, while dis-dis-inhibitory pathways are inhibitory.
Derivative of File:Basal ganglia circuits.png
Mikael Häggström, based on image by Andrew Gillies/User:Anaru