Oculomotor Performances Are Associated With Motor and Non-motor Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease.

Yu Zhang,Bingyu Liu,Yuchen Zhao,Jiangxiu Tan,Ying Liu,Lu Song,Ying Wan,Yong Gu,Zhenguo Liu,Aijuan Yan

doi:10.3389/fneur.2018.00960

Abstract

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) patients exhibit deficits in oculomotor behavior, yet the results are inconsistent across studies. In addition, how these results are associated with clinical symptoms is unclear, especially in China.Methods: We designed a case-control study in China including 37 PD patients and 39 controls. Clinical manifestations in PD patients were recorded. Oculomotor performance was measured by a video-based eye tracker system.Results: We found that six oculomotor parameters, including fixation stability, saccadic latency, smooth pursuit gain, saccade frequency, viewing range, and saccade frequency during free-viewing context, were significantly different in PD patients and control group. Combining application of these six parameters could improve diagnostic accuracy to over 90%. Moreover, pursuit gain was significantly associated with PD duration, UPDRS III, in PD patients. Saccade latency was significantly associated with PD duration, Berg balance score, RBD score, and Total LEDD in PD patients.Conclusions: PD patients commonly exhibit oculomotor deficits in multiple behavioral contexts, which are associated with both motor and non-motor symptoms. Oculomotor test may provide a valuable tool for the clinical assessment of PD.

Highlights

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease characterized by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra
The underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear, it is possible that PD is a multisystem disorder involving multiple brain regions and pathways that are related to eye movements and attention
We found that the PD patients tended to make less saccadic eye movements compared to the normal subjects (Figure 1G, p = 7.8E-4, t-test)

Summary

Introduction

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease characterized by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Several studies have indicated that PD patients exhibit deficits in oculomotor behavior compared to the normal subjects, such as saccade and smooth pursuit eye movements [10,11,12,13,14,15]. The underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear, it is possible that PD is a multisystem disorder involving multiple brain regions and pathways that are related to eye movements and attention. Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients exhibit deficits in oculomotor behavior, yet the results are inconsistent across studies. How these results are associated with clinical symptoms is unclear, especially in China

Objectives

Methods

Results