[Verse 1] Down in the substantia nigra, pars compacta, the cells burn low Dopamine neurons flicker out before the symptoms ever show Sixty to eighty percent have to vanish, quietly, unseen Before your hand starts hesitating — devagar, o que isso quer dizer (slowly, what does that mean) [Chorus] Parkinson's é lento, o cérebro congela (the brain freezes) Bradykinesia, rigidez — devagar na janela (slow, stuck at the window) Tremor de quatro a seis, a pendulum at rest Huntington's dança louca — chorea, o oposto, confess Too little dopamine freezes you, too much movement flows free Dois lados da moeda (two sides of the coin) — learn the melody [Verse 2] Bradykinesia means slow-movement, brady plus kinesis, old Greek combined Rigidity's a cogwheel, your joints catch like a stiff machine design Resting tremor hums at four to six hertz, a pill-rolling finger beat Postural instability topples the balance, you stumble on your feet Doctors once just called it palsy — an antique word for shaking, nothing more Now we trace it to the dying neurons, falling at the nigra's core [Chorus] Parkinson's é lento, o cérebro congela Bradykinesia, rigidez — devagar na janela Tremor de quatro a seis, a pendulum at rest Huntington's dança louca — chorea, o oposto, confess Too little dopamine freezes you, too much movement flows free Dois lados da moeda — learn the melody [Verse 3] Normally the direct path revs the movement, the indirect one taps the brake Lose the dopamine, the indirect pathway roars — too much brake is all it takes GPi clamps down upon the thalamus, inhibition stacked up high Starves the drive out to the SMA, your own intention passes by Beta waves come surging louder, oscillations where there should be none Synchrony instead of rhythm — the tremor's drummer has begun [Verse 4] L-DOPA crosses into the brain and turns to dopamine once inside Refills the tank the SNc lost, and for a while it turns the tide Deep brain stimulation, electrodes resting in the STN or GPi One-thirty hertz of pulses jamming the beat, quieting that noisy cry Não é cura (it isn't a cure), just loosens the chains that bind Movement returns like a river remembering where it used to wind [Bridge] Switch the story — CAG repeats stutter inside the HTT gene Too many copies, too many copies, a triplet repeat obscene This time the indirect-pathway neurons are first in line to die Less brake on movement means it spills out — chorea, a dance gone awry Where Parkinson's froze you solid, Huntington's shakes you loose Same basal ganglia circuit, opposite ends of the noose [Chorus] Parkinson's é lento, o cérebro congela Bradykinesia, rigidez — devagar na janela Tremor de quatro a seis, a pendulum at rest Huntington's dança louca — chorea, o oposto, confess Too little dopamine freezes you, too much movement flows free Dois lados da moeda — learn the melody
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