Increased cerebral activity in Parkinson's disease patients carrying the DRD2 TaqIA A1 allele during a demanding motor task: a compensatory mechanism?
Genes Brain Behav
; 6(6): 588-92, 2007 Aug.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-17147698
ABSTRACT
Previous studies suggest that neuroimaging techniques are useful for detecting the effects of functional genetic polymorphisms on brain function in healthy subjects or in patients presenting with psychiatric or neurodegenerative conditions. Former evidence showed that individuals carrying risk alleles displayed broader patterns of brain activity during behavioural and cognitive tasks, despite being clinically comparable to non-carriers. This suggests the presence of compensatory brain mechanisms. In the present study, we investigated this effect in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients carrying the DRD2 TaqIA A1 allelic variant. This variant may confer an increased risk of developing the disease and/or influence the clinical presentation. During a complex sequential motor task, we evidenced by functional magnetic resonance imaging that A1 allele carriers activated a larger network of bilateral cerebral areas than non-carriers, including cerebellar and premotor regions. Both groups had similar clinical and demographic measures. In addition, their motor performance during the functional magnetic resonance experiment was comparable. Therefore, our conclusions, pending replication in a larger sample, seem to reflect the recruitment of compensatory cerebral resources during motor processing in PD patients carrying the A1 allele.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Doença de Parkinson
/
Atenção
/
Encéfalo
/
Mapeamento Encefálico
/
Receptores de Dopamina D2
/
Destreza Motora
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Genes Brain Behav
Assunto da revista:
CIENCIAS DO COMPORTAMENTO
/
GENETICA
Ano de publicação:
2007
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Espanha