Deep-Brain Stimulation Improves Overriding but not Re-engagement of Actions in Parkinson's Disease
1 : Psychology Department, University of Amsterdam
2 : Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam
3 : Department of Psychology, Leiden University
4 : Neurology Department, University of Virginia Health Systems
5 : School of Psychological Sciences, University of Northern Colorado
6 : Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
* : Corresponding author
Recent fMRI work and patient studies have shown that the basal ganglia play a key role in a distributed brain network that controls the non-specific abortion of motor responses. The aim of the present study was to specify the involvement of the basal ganglia in selective action control of responses as a more fine-grained form of cognitive control. We employed the stop-change task (based on a horse-race model) to investigate the ability to interrupt and change an ongoing overt action. Our sample consisted of 17 patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease who received deep-brain stimulation (DBS) in the subthalamic nucleus (STN). All patients performed the tasks on and off stimulation to address the question whether stimulation is effective in improving stop-signal RT in the stop-change task. DBS shortened go reaction time (RT) related to generating overt responses. In addition DBS yielded shorter stop-signal RT, pointing toward improved inhibitory control over overt responses. Interestingly stimulation did not shorten response latencies to the change signal. This pattern is interpreted to suggest a functional dissociation of the effects of DBS on generating and inhibiting voluntary actions.
| Subject : | : | Symposium |
| Topics | : | SY: Basal ganglia and cognition |
| PDF version | : |  PDF version |
