Increased fractional anisotropy in the motor tracts of Parkinson's disease suggests compensatory neuroplasticity or selective neurodegeneration.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine the differences in motor pathways and selected non-motor pathways of the basal ganglia in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients compared to healthy controls (HCs).

Methods

We analysed diffusion weighted imaging data of 24 PD patients and 26 HCs. We performed deterministic tractography analysis using the spherical deconvolution-based damped Richardson-Lucy algorithm and subcortical volume analysis.

Results

We found significantly increased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the motor pathways of PD patients: the bilateral corticospinal tract (right; corrected p = 0.0003, left; corrected p = 0.03), bilateral thalamus-motor cortex tract (right; corrected p = 0.02, left; corrected p = 0.004) and the right supplementary area-putamen tract (corrected p = 0.001)

SUBMITTER: Mole JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5021738 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature