Levodopa improves response inhibition and enhances striatal activation in early-stage Parkinson ’s disease

Dopaminergic medications improve the motor symptoms of Parkinson ’s disease (PD), but their effect on response inhibition, a critical executive function, remains unclear. Previous studies primarily enrolled patients in more advanced stages of PD, when dopaminergic medication loses efficacy, and patients were typically on multiple medications. Here, we recruited 21 patients in early-stage PD on levodopa monotherapy and 37 age-matched controls to perform the stop-signal task during fMRI. In contrast to previous studies reporting null effects in more advanced PD, levodopa significantly improved response inhibition performance in our sample.
Source: Neurobiology of Aging - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: research