Research article summary (published 29 Jun 2009):

Reduced ventrolateral fMRI response during observation of emotional gestures related to the degree of dopaminergic impairment in Parkinson disease.

Full Abstract

Recent findings point to a perceptive impairment of emotional facial expressions in patients diagnosed with Parkinson disease (PD). In these patients, administration of dopamine can modulate emotional facial recognition. We used fMRI to investigate differences in the functional activation in response to emotional and nonemotional gestures between PD patients and age-matched healthy controls (HC). In addition, we used PET to evaluate the striatal dopamine transporter availability (DAT) with [(11)C]d-threo-methylphenidate in the patient group. Patients showed an average decrease to 26% in DAT when compared to age-corrected healthy references. Reduction in the DAT of the left putamen correlated not only with motor impairment but also with errors in emotional gesture recognition. In comparison to HC, PD patients showed a specific decrease in activation related to emotional gesture observation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and the right superior temporal sulcus. Moreover, the less DAT present in the left putamen, the lower the activation in the left VLPFC. We conclude that a loss of dopaminergic neurotransmission in the putamen results in a reduction of ventrolateral prefrontal access involved in the recognition of emotional gestures.

Author information

Author/s: Lotze, Martin (M); Reimold, Matthias (M); Heymans, Ulrike (U); Laihinen, Arto (A); Patt, Marianne (M); Halsband, Ulrike (U);

Affiliation: Functional Imaging Group, Center for Diagnostic Radiology and Neuroradiology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany. martin.lotze(-atsign-)greifswald.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of cognitive neuroscience (J Cogn Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Jul; vol 21 (issue 7) : pp 1321-31

Dates: Created 2009/04/27; Completed 2009/08/12;

PMID: 18752414, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 8/21/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Aged Brain - blood supply; drug effects; radionuclide imaging Brain Mapping Carbon Radioisotopes - diagnostic use Case-Control Studies Corpus Striatum - blood supply; drug effects; radionuclide imaging Dopamine - metabolism Dopamine Agents - therapeutic use Emotions Female Gestures Humans

Image Processing, Computer-Assisted Linear Models Magnetic Resonance Imaging Male Methylphenidate - diagnostic use Middle Aged Observation - methods Oxygen - blood Parkinson Disease - drug therapy; pathology; physiopathology; radionuclide imaging Photic Stimulation Positron-Emission Tomography - methods Recognition (Psychology) - physiology

Associated Chemicals: Carbon Radioisotopes (0) ; Dopamine Agents (0) ; Methylphenidate (113-45-1) ; Oxygen (7782-44-7)

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