Over the past few decades the field of neurology has seen spectacular developments in diagnostic techniques, most vividly exemplified by modern neuroimaging and molecular genetics. Although not always at the same speed this evolution has gone hand in hand with an enlarging armentarium of effective therapies to treat neurological disease. This is particularly true for the field of movement disorders, where one of the most exciting success stories of modern translational research in neuroscience unfolded more than 40 years ago: the discovery of dopamine deficiency in the striatum of patients with Parkinson’s disease and the subsequent introduction of levodopa as a dramatically effective therapy of.
