Effects of dopamine on reinforcement learning in Parkinson's disease depend on motor phenotype.

ABSTRACT: Parkinson's disease is clinically defined by bradykinesia, along with rigidity and tremor. However, the severity of these motor signs is greatly variable between individuals, particularly the presence or absence of tremor. This variability in tremor relates to variation in cognitive/motivational impairment, as well as the spatial distribution of neurodegeneration in the midbrain and dopamine depletion in the striatum. Here we ask whether interindividual heterogeneity in tremor symptoms could account for the puzzlingly large variability in the effects of dopaminergic medication on reinforcement learning, a fundamental cognitive function known to rely on dopamine. Given that tremor-dominant and non-tremor Parkinson's disease patients have different dopaminergic phenotypes, we hypothesized th

SUBMITTER: van Nuland AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7719026 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature