Physical activity intensity is associated with cognition and functional connectivity in Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment is common in Parkinson's disease (PD) and often leads to dementia, with no effective treatment. Aging studies suggest that physical activity (PA) intensity has a positive impact on cognition and enhanced functional connectivity may underlie these benefits. However, less is known in PD. This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between PA intensity, cognitive performance, and resting state functional connectivity in PD and whether PA intensity influences the relationship between functional connectivity and cognitive performance. METHODS: 96 individuals with mild-moderate PD completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Intensity of PA was objectively captured over a seven-day period using a wearable device (ActiGraph). Time spent in light and moderate intensity PA was determined based on standardized actigraphy cut points. Resting-state fMRI was assessed in a subset of 50 individuals to examine brain-wide functional connectivity. RESULTS: Moderate intensity PA (MIPA), but not light PA, was associated with better global cognition, visuospatial function, memory, and executive function. Individuals who met the WHO recommendation of ≥150 min/week of MIPA demonstrated better global cognition, executive function, and visuospatial function. Resting-state functional connectivity associated with MIPA included a combination of brainstem, hippocampus, and regions in the frontal, cingulate, and parietal cortices, which showed higher connectivity across the brain in those achieving the WHO MIPA recommendation. Meeting this recommendation positively moderated the associations between identified functional connectivity and global cognition, visuospatial function, and language. CONCLUSION: Encouraging MIPA, particularly the WHO recommendation of ≥150 min of MIPA/week, may represent an important prescription for PD cognition.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy shows associations between neurometabolite levels and perivascular space volume in Parkinson's disease: a pilot and feasibility study.

OBJECTIVE: Higher volume fraction of perivascular space (PVS) has recently been reported in Parkinson's disease (PD) and related disorders. Both elevated PVS and altered levels of neurometabolites, assayed by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), are suspected indicators of neuroinflammation, but no published reports have concurrently examined PVS and MRS neurometabolites. METHODS: In an exploratory pilot study, we acquired multivoxel 3-T MRS using a semi-Localization by Adiabatic SElective Refocusing (sLASER) pulse-sequence (repetition time/echo time = 2810/60 ms, voxels 10 × 10 × 10 mm3) from a 2D slab sampling bilateral frontal white matter (FWM) and anterior middle cingulate cortex (aMCC). PVS maps obtained from high-resolution (0.8 × 0.8 × 0.8 mm3) T1-weighted MRI were co-registered with MRS. In each MRS voxel, PVS volume and neurometabolite levels were measured. RESULTS: Linear regression accounting for age, sex, and BMI found greater PVS volume for higher levels of choline-containing compounds (Cho; P = 0.047) in FWM and lower PVS volume for higher levels of N-acetyl compounds (NAA; P = 0.012) in aMCC. Since (putatively) higher Cho is associated with inflammation while NAA has anti-inflammatory properties, these observations add to evidence that higher PVS load is a sign of inflammation. Additionally, lower Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores were associated with lower NAA in aMCC (P = 0.002), suggesting that local neuronal dysfunction and inflammation contribute to cognitive impairment in PD. CONCLUSION: These exploratory findings indicate that co-analysis of PVS and MRS is feasible and may help elucidate the cellular and metabolic substrates of glymphatic and inflammatory processes in PD.