Authors:

Muller, V., Lutzenberger, W., PULVERMULLER, F. & Mohr, B.

Reference:

Year of publication:

2001

CBU number:

4086

Abstract:

EEGs were recorded from patients in early stages of Parkinson's disease (17 patients, 9 females) and healthy controls (12 subjects, 8 females) during rest and during execution / imagining of a complex motor task. The prediction that Parkinson patients show unusually complex brain dynamics during performance of motor tasks and movement imagination was tested. EEG brain responses were studied using methods derived from nonlinear dynamics. In the resting state, analysis of correlation dimension of EEG time series did not reveal any significant difference between the patients with Parkinson's Disease and matched normal control subjects. During performance of a complex motor task, however, data from Parkinson patients showed higher dimensionality compared to controls indicating more complex EEG time series. The same difference was found when subjects did not perform any motor movements but instead imagined the complex movements they just performed. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that Parkinson's disease is characterized by a recruitment of superfluous cortical networks (cell assemblies) due to deficient striatal inhibition of alternative motor programs in action-related conditions.