People living with Parkinson’s disease work their brains harder to keep them motivated, new research from the University of Dundee has revealed.
A new study from the University’s School of Medicine found that patients with Parkinson’s can create a back channel within their brain that they may use to prevent them from becoming apathetic – one of the first and most prevalent symptoms of the illness.
Using an MRI scanner to study Parkinson’s patients while completing a specially created task, the Dundee team noted increased activity in an area of the brain, effectively reprogramming it to ensure that a person maintains their levels of motivation.
This discovery, published in the prestigious journal Brain, could lead to new treatments that significantly improve the quality of life of people living with Parkinson’s disease.
Apathy can often be mistaken for depression, however, while people with depression can feel pessimistic about their future, those considered apathetic feel indifferent and unmotivated.
Study participants were challenged to play a computer game where they had to obtain as many points as possible when asked to choose between four options. In a similar way to the fluctuations of the stock market, the value of the four options changed throughout the game so they had to decide whether to stay or switch their option depending upon feedback. This was conducted while the individuals were within an MRI scanner, allowing the Dundee team to study their brain activity throughout the challenge.
Those who were apathetic were able to identify the best option but tended to give up on this option prematurely, moving on to a different one despite it being potentially worse. However, those who did not display apathy were able to track the best option as well as healthy participants.
Dr Gilbertson and colleagues recruited 75 volunteers for their study, 53 of which had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, with and without clinical apathy, and a further 22 as age-matched, healthy controls.
In analysing the results and noting the change in behaviours, Dr Gilbertson believes that apathetic tendencies could be a result of the brain’s inability to accurately represent the value of options presented to some Parkinson’s patients.
He added, “It is possible that what is happening here is that when we lose one neuromodulatory system like dopamine, which is predominantly lost in Parkinson’s, another, like serotonin or noradrenaline takes over. The potential for the brain to demonstrate capacity to get around one system being lost – like with stroke patients – needs to be proven, and that is where we will look to expand on this research. If we can prove that then we can identify new therapies.”
