Skip Navigation



Brain Advance Access published online on November 21, 2006
Brain, doi:10.1093/brain/awl326
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
130/1/233    most recent
awl326v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Monchi, O.
Right arrow Articles by Strafella, A. P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Monchi, O.
Right arrow Articles by Strafella, A. P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received May 4, 2006
Revised September 11, 2006
Accepted October 19, 2006

Article

Cortical activity in Parkinson's disease during executive processing depends on striatal involvement

Oury Monchi 1 *, Michael Petrides 2, Beatriz Mejia-Constain 1, and Antonio P. Strafella 3

1 Functional Neuroimaging Unit, Research Centre, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Radiology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2 Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
3 Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; UNH-Toronto Western Hospital and CAMH-PET Imaging Center, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Oury Monchi, E-mail: oury.monchi{at}umontreal.ca


  Abstract

Patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease exhibit impairments in executive processes, including planning and set-shifting, even at the early stages of the disease. We have recently developed a new card-sorting task to study the specific role of the caudate nucleus in such executive processes and have shown, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in young healthy adults, that the caudate nucleus is specifically required when a set-shift must be planned. Here the same fMRI protocol was used to compare the patterns of activation in a group of early-stage Parkinson's disease patients (seven right-handed patients at Hoehn and Yahr stages 1 and 2; mean age 62 years, range 56-70) and matched control subjects. Increased cortical activation was observed in the patients compared with the control group in the condition not specifically requiring the caudate nucleus. On the other hand, decreased cortical activation was observed in the patient group in the condition significantly involving the caudate nucleus. This event-related fMRI study showed a pattern of cortical activation in Parkinson's disease characterized by either reduced or increased activation depending on whether the caudate nucleus was involved or not in the task. This activation pattern included not only the prefrontal regions but also posterior cortical areas in the parietal and prestriate cortex. These findings are not in agreement with the traditional model, which proposes that the nigrostriatal dopamine depletion results in decreased cortical activity. These observations provide further evidence in favour of the hypothesis that not only the nigrostriatal and but also the mesocortical dopaminergic substrate may play a significant role in the cognitive deficits observed in Parkinson's disease.

Keywords: executive functions; fMRI; Parkinson's disease; set-shifting; striatum.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
N. M. Zahr, D. Mayer, A. Pfefferbaum, and E. V. Sullivan
Low Striatal Glutamate Levels Underlie Cognitive Decline in the Elderly: Evidence from In Vivo Molecular Spectroscopy
Cereb Cortex, October 1, 2008; 18(10): 2241 - 2250.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 BrainHome page
J. B. Rowe, L. Hughes, B. C. P. Ghosh, D. Eckstein, C. H. Williams-Gray, S. Fallon, R. A. Barker, and A. M. Owen
Parkinson's disease and dopaminergic therapy--differential effects on movement, reward and cognition
Brain, August 1, 2008; 131(8): 2094 - 2105.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 BrainHome page
N. Sawamoto, P. Piccini, G. Hotton, N. Pavese, K. Thielemans, and D. J. Brooks
Cognitive deficits and striato-frontal dopamine release in Parkinson's disease
Brain, May 1, 2008; 131(5): 1294 - 1302.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
A. Nagano-Saito, M. Leyton, O. Monchi, Y. K. Goldberg, Y. He, and A. Dagher
Dopamine Depletion Impairs Frontostriatal Functional Connectivity during a Set-Shifting Task
J. Neurosci., April 2, 2008; 28(14): 3697 - 3706.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 BrainHome page
C. H. Williams-Gray, A. Hampshire, R. A. Barker, and A. M. Owen
Attentional control in Parkinson's disease is dependent on COMT val158met genotype
Brain, February 1, 2008; 131(2): 397 - 408.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.