Default Mode Network and Extrastriate Visual Resting State Network in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease Dementia

Abstract

Aims: Using fMRI, we evaluated the default mode network (DMN) and the extrastriate visual resting state network (ESV-RSN) in 14 patients with Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) as compared with 18 patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) without dementia and 18 healthy controls (HC). Methods: We analyzed the seed-based functional connectivity of both resting state data and deactivations during a visual complex scene-encoding task. Results: Using the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus as a seed for the DMN analysis, we observed significant decreases of connectivity in the right inferior frontal gyrus in PDD as compared to PD and HC. Using the caudate nucleus as a seed for the ESV-RSN analysis, we found significant decreases of connectivity in the left and right inferior occipital gyrus in PDD as compared to HC. Conclusion: Differences in functional connectivity patterns between PDD and PD/HC were observed in areas known to be engaged in stimulus-driven reorienting of attention and in visual processing.