Movement disorders: a brief overview from an evolutionary perspective

Evolutionary approach tries to explain several aspects of neurological diseases under the perspective of evolution. Evolutive bottle-neck may explain some aspects of neurodegenerative diseases. Additionally, a number of genetic alleles may reflect an evolutionary trade-off between benefits in early life and late-life disadvantages. Antagonistic pleiotropy theory suggests that some adaptive evolutionary changes increase individual fitness early in life, but can exacerbate detrimental aging-related processes We discuss three diseases with movement disorders from an evolutionary perspective: Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and Tourette syndrome.