Abstract
This article reviews the findings of event-related potentials (ERP) in Parkinson's disease (PD) published during the last 10 years. Basic principles and methods of ERP are briefly presented with particular regard to the auditory “odd-ball” paradigm almost uniquely employed for the ERP assessment in PD to date. The results of respective studies are overviewed and discussed with respect to three main axes: (1) The slowing down of cognitive processing in PD is reflected by the delays of N2 and P3 components of ERP which are more important in demented than in non-demented patients. The Nl component is delayed in demented patients with PD as well as in other dementias of presumed subcortical origin. (2) Various neuropsychological deficits observed in PD correlate with the delays of ERP evoking the implication of common subcortico-cortical cerebral mechanisms. (3) The variations of ERP under dopaminergic manipulation suggest conflicting effects of levodopa treatment on cognition, at least in certain categories of PD patients. These findings are discussed in the light of current knowledge on neurotransmitter brain systems and some hypothetic explanations are proposed. Finally, an attempt is made to outline further perspectives of clinical and research utilization of ERP in Parkinson's disease.
Highlights
Changes of mental status are recognized as common features in Parkinson's disease (PD)
(1) The N2 and P3 eventrelated potentials (ERP) components are delayed in PD and the latency increases are more important in demented PD patients
The P3 latency delay could be related to focal cognitive deficits observed in PD, which have been attributed to frontal lobe impairment and to subcortico-cortical dysfunction
Summary
Changes of mental status are recognized as common features in Parkinson's disease (PD). The diagnosis of cognitive impairment in PD is not always easy, especially when characteristic motor deficits interfere with neuropsychological examination. Eventrelated potentials (ERP), which are considered to be independent from disabled motor output, have been proposed as an objective electrophysiological index of cognitive function in PD. The aim of this review is to evaluate the role ofERP in clinical investigation ofPD and to summarize its contribution to research into physiopathological mechanisms implicated in cognitive impairment in PD. ERP are a class of long-latency evoked potentials which were shown to reflect human information processing (Sutton et al, 1965; Donchin et al, 1978). By combining information on latency, amplitude and topography ofERP
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