Final answer:
Huntington refers to an autosomal dominant disorder called Huntington's disease, which affects the nervous system by producing a toxic protein that damages neurons, leading to muscle spasms and personality changes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The word Huntington is an example of a neurological disorder known as Huntington's disease, which is classified under autosomal dominant disorders. This disorder impacts the nervous system, leading to the gradual degradation of neural tissue. The presence of one abnormal dominant allele for the Huntington gene will cause the disease. Notably, the symptoms of Huntington's disease commonly do not appear until middle age, and parents with the disease have a 50 percent chance of passing this allele to each child, as demonstrated through a simple Punnett square.
The disease is characterized by a mutant allele that leads to the production of an abnormal protein with expanded repeats of glutamine. This toxic protein causes nuclear inclusions in neurons, as seen in Figure 12.14, which are indicative of Huntington's disease and are responsible for its symptoms, including muscle spasms and personality changes.