Inhibition of ongoing responses in patients with Parkinson’s disease

• Published in: Journal of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry Vol. 75; no. 4; pp. 539 - 544
• Main Authors: Gauggel, S, Rieger, M, Feghoff, T-A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 01.04.2004; BMJ; BMJ Publishing Group LTD; BMJ Group
• Subjects: Achievement Measure System; Affect - physiology; AMS; analysis of covariance; ANCOVA; Auditory Verbal Learning Test; AVLT; basal ganglia; Basal Ganglia - physiopathology; Biological and medical sciences; Choice Behavior - physiology; Concept Formation - physiology; Dementia - diagnosis; Dementia - physiopathology; Discrimination Learning - physiology; Female; Frontal Lobe - physiopathology; Humans; inhibition of ongoing responses; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Nerve Net - physiopathology; Neural Inhibition - physiology; Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data; Orientation - physiology; orthopaedic controls; Parkinson Disease - diagnosis; Parkinson Disease - physiopathology; Parkinson's disease; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Psychometrics; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; reaction time; Reaction Time - physiology; SSRT; stop signal reaction time; stop signal task; Human; Nervous system diseases; Central nervous system disease; Parkinson disease; Degenerative disease; Cerebral disorder; Extrapyramidal syndrome
• ISSN: 0022-3050; 1468-330X
• DOI: 10.1136/jnnp.2003.016469

Objectives: We investigated the involvement of the basal ganglia in inhibiting ongoing responses in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods: Thirty two patients with PD and 31 orthopaedic controls performed the stop signal task, which allows an estimation of the time it takes to inhibit an ongoing reaction (stop signal reaction time, SSRT). Results: Patients with PD showed significantly longer SSRTs than the controls. This effect seemed to be independent of global cognitive impairment and severity of PD. Furthermore, in the PD patients, there was no significant relation between general slowing and inhibitory efficiency. Conclusions: Our results provide evidence for involvement of the basal ganglia in the inhibition of ongoing responses.