I'm sitting on the porch where, the last year of his life, my father placed his hand in mine. Whether he died from Alzheimer's, or Parkinson's, or a combination of the two, chances are facets of the basal ganglia were involved. I remember how the basal ganglia are a collection of nuclei deep in the white matter of the cerebral cortex. The name includes: caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens, globus pallidus, substantia nigra, subthalamic nucleus, and historically his brain withered, until memories returned only as myths.