Dysfunctions of automatic (P300a) and controlled (P300b) processing in Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

P300 Event Related Potentials components (P300a and P300b) were investigated using an auditory oddball paradigm (with abutton press response to target stimuli) in 15 Parkinson’s disease patients and 50 normal controls whilst simultaneously measuring electrodermal activity. Cluster analysis showed that the first 10 target stimuli generated the largest skin conductance responses. The first 10 single-trial ERP epochs were therefore analysed as an ERP sub-average for each individual. The P300a component (associated with the automatic ‘Orienting Reflex’) was expected to be most prevalent in this sub-average (compared with subaverages of subsequent blocks of 10 target stimuliJ. Twenty-nine out of50 normal controls (58%) elicited a P300a in the first 10 target sub-averages compared with only 2 out of 15 Parkinson’s disease subjects (J 3%). The conventional P300b component (associated with controlled processing) was found to be significantly delayed for all sub-averages for the Parkinson’s disease group when compared with controls. These preliminary findings suggest a possible dysfunction in both automatic and controlled processing in this disorder. [Neural Res 1998: 20: 5–10]