Dancing Mania

It's Week 3 of Behavioral Neuroscience already, wow. This week I wanted to get you thinking about basal ganglia, chorea, and Middle Age dancing manias. Sound intersting? Of course it does.

I bet you haven't done much thinking about your basal ganglia lately. Well, maybe it's time you did. Actually, we learned about basal ganglia last week in our dissection of the sheep brain. You remember that the basal ganglia is a subcortical collection of gray matter (neuron cell bodies) that's located deep down in the cerebrum; included in the basal ganglia are the caudate nucleus, the amygdaloid nucleus, and the lentiform nucleus. The basal ganglia is implicated in movement; it is supposed that one of its functions is to control a motor area of the cortex. Interference with the basal ganglia causes rapid involuntary muscle contractions. But what does this this have to do with dancing in the Middle Ages?

I'm getting to that part.

Sometimes damage to the basal ganglia can cause extensive involuntary muscle movements, almost like a person was dancing in a really clumsy and jerky way. These jerky movements are called chorea. (That comes from the Greek word for "dance.") During the Middle Ages there occurred "dancing manias" that swept over large areas. Chorea epidemics? Possibly. It may have been that individual cases of mania (and dancing frenzies) were in fact caused by chorea.

It was once believed that making a pilgramage to the shrine of St. Vitus would cure the "dancing mania." Today, chorea has the common name of "St. Vitus's dance."

This information comes to you from the book The Human Brain by Isaac Asimov. I recommend that you read it as it contains many random and interesting facts. Have a fun week.