Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0030567 (Parkinson's disease)
 63,064 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The average Bereitschaftspotential (BP) preceding a rapid, self-paced voluntary extension movement of the index finger was recorded from 6 scalp locations in 14 patients with Parkinson's disease who had been withdrawn from their normal drug therapy for at least 12 h before testing. The amplitude of the potential was measured at the peak negativity (N1) and 650 ms prior to this (NS1), and compared with that recorded in a group of 12 age-matched control subjects. The N1 amplitude was the same as in the normals, but the NS1 component was smaller in the patients, especially in midline leads. As a result, the rise in the BP between the peak NS1 and N1 component (termed NS2) was larger in the patient group. The NS1 component of the BP is thought to reflect preparatory activity in the supplementary motor area (SMA) of cortex. Since the basal ganglia provide a major source of afferent input to SMA, the reduction in NS1 in the patients probably results from inadequate basal ganglia activation of SMA. The larger NS2 component may reflect extra activity in other brain areas to compensate for the reduced SMA activity.
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PMID:The Bereitschaftspotential is abnormal in Parkinson's disease. 291 79

For a long time, reaction time (RT) testing has been used for objective assessment of characteristics of the movement impairments in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). On the other hand, it is supposed that Bereitschaftspotential (BP) reflects CNS preparatory activity for the execution of voluntary movements, and amplitudes of BP are generally smaller in PD. In order to analyze possible correlations between two methods, we studied 15 drug-naive patients with idiopathic PD (Hoehn and Yahr stage from 1 to 2.5). BP was recorded from three scalp locations: Cz, C3, and C4, and Lateralized Potential (LP) was additionally calculated as a C3-C4 difference waveform. We recorded amplitudes of the initial part of BP (at 650 ms before movement-NS1), the maximal amplitude immediately before movement onset (N1), and the N1-NS1 difference (NS2), from the Cz and LP recordings. Two RT testing paradigms were used: Simple Reaction Time (SRT) and Choice Reaction Time (ChRT). The only significant correlation between RT parameters and BP amplitudes from Cz was negative correlation between dT (difference time between Choice Reaction Time and Simple Reaction Time), on one hand, and NS1 (P = 0.006) and N1 (P = 0.026), on the other. However, Cz-NS2 did not correlate with any of the RT parameters. Our data suggest that PD patients with smaller difference between ChRT and SRT, that is presumably caused by the lesser capacity of the movement pre-programming, have smaller (i.e., less negative) BP amplitudes. This association is especially pronounced for the earlier, NS1 amplitude that is supposed to reflect the activity of the supplementary motor area (SMA). The diminished capacity of SMA activation may be the cause of the both, smaller early BP amplitudes, and smaller ChRT-SRT difference, in PD patients.
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PMID:Correlation between Bereitschaftspotential and reaction time measurements in patients with Parkinson's disease. Measuring the impaired supplementary motor area function? 910 25

We studied the effect of posteroventral pallidotomy on movement preparation and execution in 27 parkinsonian patients using various motor tasks. Patients were evaluated after overnight withdrawal of medication before and 3 months after unilateral pallidotomy. Surgery had no effect on initiation time in unwarned simple and choice reaction time tasks, whereas movement time measured during the same tasks was improved for the contralesional hand. Movement times also improved for isometric and isotonic ballistic movements. In contrast, repetitive, distal and fine movements measured in finger-tapping and pegboard tasks were not improved after pallidotomy. Preparatory processes were investigated using both behavioural and electrophysiological measures. A precued choice reaction time task suggested an enhancement of motor preparation for the contralesional hand. Similarly, movement-related cortical potentials showed an increase in the slope of the late component (NS2) when the patients performed joystick movements with the contralesional hand. However, no significant change was found for the early component (NS1) or when the patient moved the ipsilesional hand. The amplitude of the long-latency stretch reflex of the contralesional hand decreased after surgery. In summary, the data suggest that pallidotomy improved mainly the later stages of movement preparation and the execution of proximal movements with the contralesional limb. These results provide detailed quantitative data on the impact of posteroventral pallidotomy on previously described measures of upper limb akinesia in Parkinson's disease.
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PMID:The effects of posteroventral pallidotomy on the preparation and execution of voluntary hand and arm movements in Parkinson's disease. 1007 Oct 59