Good Brain, Bad Brain: Parkinson's Disease

This free online course is aimed at anyone who wants to find out the fundamentals of Parkinson’s disease. We will look at how Parkinson’s disease affects people; what causes it; what we can do to try to ameliorate the symptoms of Parkinson’s; and what we don’t yet know about it.

Understand Parkinson’s disease

As one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases, most people at least know of one person who has Parkinson’s disease. As the population ages, the number of people with Parkinson’s will increase. Many people will be able to give a vague description of how that person is affected but may not know why.

We will consider how the normal principles of how neurones work and communicate are altered in the Parkinsonian brain, and why this leads to the symptoms that we see. We can then apply this knowledge to thinking about how current therapies for Parkinson’s disease work.

Finally, we can think about where the holes in our knowledge are and the importance of this for improving our ability to alleviate the symptoms of the disease.

Learn more with the Good Brain, Bad Brain program

This course is the second of three in the Good Brain, Bad Brain program from the University of Birmingham. You can begin by looking at the basics of the human brain and go on to learn more about Parkinson’s disease and drug origins.

When you complete all three courses and buy a Certificate of Achievement for each, you will earn a FutureLearn Award as proof of completing the program of study.