On Sept. 15, 2023, a Northwestern Medicine study challenges a common belief in what triggers Parkinsonﾒs disease. Degeneration of dopaminergic neurons is widely accepted as the first event that leads to Parkinsonﾒs. But the new study suggests that a dysfunction in the neuronﾒs synapses ﾗ the tiny gap across which a neuron can send an impulse to another neuron ﾗ leads to deficits in dopamine and precedes the neurodegeneration.

Parkinsonﾒs disease affects 1% to 2% of the population and is characterized by resting tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia (slowness of movement). These motor symptoms are due to the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain. The findings were published in Neuron.