Utilising functional MRI (fMRI) to explore the freezing phenomenon in Parkinson's disease

James M Shine; Philip B Ward; Sharon L Naismith; Mark Pearson; Simon J G Lewis

doi:10.1016/j.jocn.2011.02.003

Utilising functional MRI (fMRI) to explore the freezing phenomenon in Parkinson's disease

J Clin Neurosci. 2011 Jun;18(6):807-10. doi: 10.1016/j.jocn.2011.02.003. Epub 2011 Mar 12.

Authors

James M Shine¹, Philip B Ward, Sharon L Naismith, Mark Pearson, Simon J G Lewis

Affiliation

¹ Parkinson's Disease Research Clinic, Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales 2050, Australia.

PMID: 21398129
DOI: 10.1016/j.jocn.2011.02.003

Abstract

Despite being common, the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of freezing in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) remain poorly understood. Recent work has shown that freezing behaviour can be provoked through the use of a computer-based virtual reality task, allowing for the exploration of freezing with functional MRI (fMRI). This article describes a single patient with PD who performed a virtual-reality walking task, both "On" and "Off" dopaminergic medication, while fMRI data were obtained. The results showed distinct BOLD patterns during "walking", "dual-task walking" and during episodes of freezing. The results of this single study highlight the potential utility of this approach in elucidating the underlying neural correlate of freezing behaviour in PD.

Publication types

Case Reports
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Brain / blood supply*
Brain Mapping
Freezing Reaction, Cataleptic / physiology*
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods
Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
Male
Middle Aged
Oxygen / blood
Parkinson Disease / pathology*
Parkinson Disease / physiopathology*
Walking / physiology

Substances

Oxygen