Functional MRI in Parkinson's Disease Cognitive Impairment

Publication date: Available online 17 October 2018Source: International Review of NeurobiologyAuthor(s): Hugo C. Baggio, Carme JunquéAbstractFunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to study the neural bases of cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease for several years. Traditionally, task-based fMRI has been applied to study specific cognitive functions, providing information on disease-related alterations and regarding the physiological bases of normal cognition, the dopaminergic system, and the frontostriatal circuits. More recently, functional connectivity techniques using resting-state fMRI data have been developed. Unconstrained by specific cognitive tasks, these techniques allow assessing whole-brain patterns of connectivity believed to be useful proxies for the underlying functional architecture of the brain. These methods have shown that different types of Parkinson's disease-related cognitive deficits are associated with patterns of altered connectivity within and between resting-state intrinsic connectivity networks. Although methodological standardization and the vulnerability of fMRI techniques to artifacts mandate further technical refinement, early studies provide encouraging results regarding the potential of fMRI-derived parameters for the ultimate goal of individual-subject classification.
Source: International Review of Neurobiology - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research