Department of Biological Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.

One of the most prominent disease conditions in cassava endemic regions of the world is movement disorders. In this study, we investigate the movement disorder from the cortical and cerebellar point of view. Most toxicity studies involving movement disorder has been greatly linked to the motor cortex, thus, we examined neurodegeneration both in the motor cortex and the cerebellar cortex. This study also evaluated the possible role of such degeneration in the etiology of neurodegenerative diseases associated with cassava endemicity. 15 F1 adult Wistar rats were divided into three groups of five animals each. The first group was the control, the second group received 10 mg/kg BW of potassium cyanide (KCN) and the third group received 20 mg/kg BW of KCN for 15 days. The cortical (motor area) and cerebellar tissue were obtained and fixed in formol calcium for cyto-architectural study. In conclusion, toxicity of cyanide in the cortex and cerebellum can involve osmotic imbalance and excitotoxicity at the 10 mg/kg causing increased in cell size and a slower form of degeneration and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and lipid peroxidation causing release hydrolytic enzymes from lysosomes that destroys the components of the cytoplasm as observed in the 20 mg/Kg treatment.   Key words: Neuron, cell death, cerebellum, cortex, movement, degeneration, oxidative stress.