Motivational engagement in Parkinson's disease: Preparation for motivated action

Abstract

The current study investigated whether motivational dysfunction in Parkinson’s patients is related to a deficit in preparing for motivated behavior. Based on previous studies, it was hypothesized that PD patients would show reduced preparation for action specifically when faced with threat (of loss) and that reduced action preparation would relate to self-report of apathy symptoms. The study measured an electrocortical correlate of preparation for action (CNV amplitude) in PD patients and healthy controls, as well as defensive and appetitive activation during emotional perception (LPP amplitude). The sample included 18 non-demented PD patients (tested on dopaminergic medications) and 15 healthy controls who responded as quickly as possible to cues signaling threat of loss or reward, in which the speed of the response determined the outcome. Results indicated that, whereas PD patients showed similar enhanced action preparation with the addition of incentives to controls, PD patients showed generally reduced action preparation, evidenced by reduced CNV amplitude overall. Results suggest that PD patients may have behavioral issues due to globally impaired action preparation but that this deficit is not emotion-specific, and movement preparation may be aided by incentive in PD patients.

Activation of the Rostral Intralaminar Thalamus Drives Reinforcement through Striatal Dopamine Release

“…The expanse of pathologies involving DA dysfunction potentially implicate the rILN → DS circuit in various neuropsychiatric disorders. The degeneration of the nigrostriatal pathway in Parkinson’s disease is associated not only with motor dysfunction ( Wichmann and DeLong, 2003 ) but also motivational deficits ( Renfroe et al, 2016 ) and cognitive deficits ( Hanganu et al, 2015 ). Degeneration of thalamostriatal projections is reported in Parkinson’s disease ( Halliday, 2009 ; Smith et al, 2014 ), which suggests that loss of rILN → DS-mediated DA signaling may contribute to disease symptomology ( Melief et al, 2018 ).…”

Roles of the Cerebellum in Motor Preparation and Prediction of Timing

“…It has been widely accepted that the motor cortices and the basal ganglia are involved in the generation of self-initiated movements (Okano and Tanji, 1987;Romo and Schultz, 1992;Schultz and Romo, 1992;Lee and Assad, 2003). In patients with Parkinson's disease, the event-related scalp potentials related to movement preparation have been shown to be greatly attenuated (Jahanshahi et al, 1995;Ikeda et al, 1997;Renfroe et al, 2016). A functional imaging study examining the correlation between the amplitude of event-related potentials (contingent negative variation) and the local cerebral blood flow has shown that in addition to the medial frontal cortex, multiple subcortical areas, such as the motor thalamus, cerebellum, and striatum, are involved in generating preparatory activity (Nagai et al, 2004).…”

Movement-related potentials in Parkinson’s disease

“…In a recent study by measuring the CNV as an electrocortical correlate of preparation for action, Renfroe et al (2016) tested whether PD patients would be less prepared for action under threat of loss compared to age-matched healthy controls. PD patients showed generally reduced action preparation (i.e.…”