The relationship between radial optic flow perception and neurodegeneration in Parkinson's Disease: A voxel‐based morphometric MRI analysis

Abstract

Symptomatic navigational veering in Parkinson's disease (PD) is related to abnormal processing of radial optic flow, or the motion patterns perceived during foreword self‐movement. Previous studies indicate an important role of the parietal cortex in the perception of radial optic flow. However, the link between radial optic flow perception, cortical degeneration, and disease severity in PD has not been explored. The aim of this study is to better understand the correlation between three‐dimensional radial optic flow perception in PD and cortical degeneration in area V6 of the parietal lobe. The V6 region is important for the analysis of visual motion patterns during self‐motion, and therefore navigation. We hypothesized that evidence for degeneration in area V6 correlates with radial optic flow measures in PD patients. Voxel‐based volumetric MRI data analyses using FreeSurfer, focusing on area V6 as the region of interest, was performed on MR brain images from 19 PD patients. Results correlated to radial optic flow measures and PD disease severity measured by Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), part 3. Correlation analyses were also conducted between the visual pathway and the basal ganglia, since both are linked to PD pathology.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.