Brainstem avenues in Parkinson's disease research

Reflex blinking is a relatively simple and stereotyped motor act.Despite this, a complex neuroanatomical framework, comprisingbrainstem circuitries as well as descending effects from subcorticaland cortical areas, intervenes in the neural control of reflex eyelidmovements (Cruccu et al., 2005; Valls-Sole, 2012; Bologna et al.,2013). Thus, investigations on reflex blinking represent a valuabletool in the field of clinical and experimental neurophysiology, inboth healthy subjects and neurological conditions. For example,studies on the blink reflex in patients with Parkinson’s diseaseand other parkinsonian syndromes have provided evidence inthese conditions of the pathophysiological involvement of thebrainstem, resulting from either neurodegenerative changes orindirect basal ganglia effects on blink reflex circuits due to alteredcentral dopaminergic activity