Attentional resource and processing speed limitations during sentence processing in Parkinson’s disease

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. This disease is characterized by motor symptoms, such as bradykinesia, tremor, and rigidity. Although balance impairment is characteristic of advanced stages, it can be present with less intensity since the beginning of the disease. Approximately 60% of PD patients fall once a year and 40% recurrently. On the other hand, cognitive symptoms affect up to 20% of patients with PD in early stages and can even precede the onset of motor symptoms. There are cognitive requirements for balance and can be challenged when attention is diverted or reduced, linking a worse balance and a higher probability of falls with a slower cognitive processing speed and attentional problems. Cognitive rehabilitation of attention and processing speed can lead to an improvement in postural stability in patients with Parkinson’s. Methods: We present a parallel and controlled randomized clinical trial (RCT) to assess the impact on balance of a protocol based on cognitive rehabilitation focused on sustained attention through the NeuronUP platform (Neuronup SI, La Rioja, Spain) in patients with PD. For 4 weeks, patients in the experimental group will receive cognitive therapy three days a week while the control group will not receive any therapy. The protocol has been registered at trials.gov NCT04730466. Conclusions: Cognitive therapy efficacy on balance improvement may open the possibility of new rehabilitation strategies for prevention of falls in PD, reducing morbidity, and saving costs to the health care system.

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Assessing Resource Demands during Sentence Processing in Parkinson's Disease

Brain and Language ◽

10.1006/brln.2001.2630 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 80 (3) ◽

pp. 603-616 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

Murray Grossman ◽

Christine Lee ◽

Jennifer Morris ◽

Matthew B. Stern ◽

Howard I. Hurtig

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Sentence Processing

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Cognitive and Physiological Substrates of Impaired Sentence Processing in Parkinson's Disease

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.1993.5.4.480 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 480-498 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Murray Grossman ◽

Susan Carvell ◽

Stephen Gollomp ◽

Matthew B. Stern ◽

Martin Reivich ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Frontal Cortex ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Positron Emission ◽

Left Caudate ◽

Regional Cerebral Glucose Metabolism

Sentence comprehension is a complex process involving at least a grammatical processor and a procedural component that supports language computations. One type of cerebral architecture that may underlie sentence processing is a network of distributed brain regions. We report two experiments designed to evaluate the cognitive and physiological substrate of sentence processing diaculties in nondemented patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). In the first experiment, patients answered simple questions about sentences that varied in their computational demands. Group and individual patient analyses indicated that PD patients are significantly compromised on this task, and that their difficulties become more prominent as the computational demands of the sentences increase. We manipulated the set of sentences to stress performance aspects of sentence processing. PD patients were compromised in their ability to detect errors in the presence and nature of a sentence's grammatical morphemes, suggesting a deficit in selective attention, but their ability to answer questions about a sentence was not afFected by short-term memory factors. In the second experiment, positron emission tomography was used to correlate this pattern of sentence comprehension impairment with regional cerebral glucose metabolism (rCMRgl) obtained at rest in a representative subset of these PD patients. Grammatical comprehension and attention in sentence processing correlated significantly with mesial frontal rCMRgl. Regression analyses confirmed the central role of left mesial frontal cortex, and identified a subsidiary role for left caudate in overall sentence comprehension, for left dorsolateral frontal cortex in grammatical processing, and for bilateral dorsolateral frontal cortex in attending to the presence of grammatical features. We conclude that compromised mesial frontal functioning underlies in part the sentence processing deficit of these patients, and these data illustrate one method for mapping portions of a sentence processing mechanism onto a distributed cerebral architecture.

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Lexical ambiguity resolution during sentence processing in Parkinson’s disease: An event-related potential study

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0176281 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 12 (5) ◽

pp. e0176281 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Anthony J. Angwin ◽

Nadeeka N. W. Dissanayaka ◽

Katie L. McMahon ◽

Peter A. Silburn ◽

David A. Copland

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Ambiguity Resolution ◽

Lexical Ambiguity ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Lexical Ambiguity Resolution ◽

Potential Study

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Attentional resource allocation and swallowing safety in Parkinson's disease: A dual task study

Parkinsonism & Related Disorders ◽

10.1016/j.parkreldis.2013.12.011 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 439-443 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Michelle S. Troche ◽

Michael S. Okun ◽

John C. Rosenbek ◽

Lori J. Altmann ◽

Christine M. Sapienza

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Resource Allocation ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Dual Task ◽

Attentional Resource

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Global cognitive function and processing speed are associated with gait and balance dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation ◽

10.1186/s12984-016-0205-y ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Gian Pal ◽

Joan O’Keefe ◽

Erin Robertson-Dick ◽

Bryan Bernard ◽

Sharlet Anderson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Cognitive Function ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Global Cognitive Function

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Attentional Resource Associated With Visual Feedback on a Postural Dual Task in Parkinson’s Disease

Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair ◽

10.1177/1545968320948071 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 34 (10) ◽

pp. 891-903

Author(s):

Shu-Han Yu ◽

Ruey-Meei Wu ◽

Cheng-Ya Huang

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Visual Feedback ◽

Dual Task ◽

Force Feedback ◽

Feedback Condition ◽

Attentional Resource ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Force Matching ◽

Force Accuracy

Background Restricted attentional resource and central processing in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) may reduce the benefit of visual feedback in a dual task. Objectives Using brain event-related potentials (ERPs), this study aims to investigate the neural mechanisms of posture visual feedback and supraposture visual feedback during performing of a posture-motor dual task. Methods Eighteen patients with PD and 18 healthy controls stood on a mobile platform (postural task) and executed a manual force-matching task (suprapostural task) concurrently with provided visual feedback of platform movement (posture-feedback condition) or force output (force-feedback condition). The platform movement, force-matching performance, and ERPs (P1, N1, and P2 waves) were recorded. Results Both PD and control groups had superior force accuracy in the force-feedback condition. Decreased postural sway by posture-feedback was observed in healthy controls but not in PD. Force-feedback led to a greater frontal area N1 peak in PD group but smaller N1 peaks in control group. In addition, force-feedback led to smaller P2 peaks of the frontal and sensorimotor areas among PD patients but greater P2 peaks of the sensorimotor and parietal-occipital areas among healthy controls. However, P1 modulations was present only in healthy controls. Conclusions Force-feedback had positive effect on force accuracy in both PD and healthy individuals; however, the beneficial effect of posture-feedback on posture balance is not observed in PD. These findings are the first to suggest that PD could recruit more attentional resources in dual-task preparation to enhance suprapostural accuracy and avoid degrading postural stability by supraposture visual feedback.

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Heterogeneity of Letter Fluency Impairment and Executive Dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617713000829 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 19 (9) ◽

pp. 986-994 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Lewis Pettit ◽

Martina McCarthy ◽

Richard Davenport ◽

Sharon Abrahams

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Executive Functioning ◽

Neurodegenerative Disease ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Significant Proportion ◽

Executive Dysfunction ◽

Regression Analyses ◽

Motor Speed

AbstractLetter fluency deficits are commonly detected in non-demented Parkinson's disease (PD) patients but the underlying cause remains uncertain. We investigated the role of slowed processing speed and executive dysfunction. Eighteen non-demented PD participants and nineteen controls were compared on letter fluency using a fluency index (Fi); the average time to “think” of each word, a measure independent of motor speed. Video analyses produced thinking times to switch between word clusters and generate a word within a cluster. Correlational and regression analyses were undertaken with tests of processing speed and executive functioning. The PD group exhibited significantly longer fluency indices than controls across all components. Performance on tests of executive functioning explained a significant proportion of variance whereas performance in processing speed tests did not. Moreover, PD participants with an executive functioning impairment showed significantly worse switching fluency indices only compared with Controls and PD participants without executive dysfunction. PD participants with executive dysfunction exhibited a disproportionate impairment in the time taken to switch between clusters than to think of words within clusters. Executive functioning contributed to fluency performance more than processing speed. Cognitive heterogeneity and motor slowing, may mask the profile of cognitive dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–9)

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