Objective: To identify, through tasks of reaction times (RT), the motor, cognitive and perceptual components involved in the processing of information in PD and to relate these components to the self-perceived quality of life (QoL) by the patient.

Background: In PD, motor symptoms predominate, but there are other non-motor symptoms, such as the cognitive impairment that can occur from early stages of the disease and can affect the QoL of patients [1]. Inhibition, decision making and visual search have been reported to be affected in PD, as well as perception and attention [2].

Method: 45 PD patients and 47 healthy controls were recruited, with no differences in age, sex and educational level. All the subjects were administered four RT tasks where we evaluated different cognitive and perceptual components, plus a purely motor test [Figure 1]. The PD patients filled the PDQ-39 scale and passed them the video-filmed MDS-UPDRS III (average 14.93), most of the patients were in stage II of the HY.

Results: There were no differences in the pure motor task between both groups p = 0.25. We found significant differences between both groups in all cognitive tasks [figure 2]. When performing the analysis of the components involved through the various ANCOVAs, we found that, eliminating the shared variance between the different tasks, the only component involved in the increase in RT is perception and sustained attention [figure 3]. We have seen a positive correlation between some of the tasks and the PDQ-39 and the MDS-UPDRS III [Table 1].

Conclusion: There seems to be a general slowing down in the processing of information in PD patients that might be due to a deficit in perception and sustained attention that impair the performance of more complex tasks. These deficits are intimately related to the severity of the symptoms and the QoL self-perceived by the patients.

References: 1 Chaudhuri KR, Healy DG, Schapira HVA. (2006). Non-motor symptons of Parkinson’s disease: diagnosis and management. Lancet Neurol. 5:235-245 2 Dujardin, K., Tard, C., Duhamel, A., Delval, A., Moreau, C., Devos, D., & Defebvre, L. (2013). The pattern of attentional deficits in Parkinson’s disease. Parkinsonism & related disorders, 19(3), 300-305.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/identifying-perceptual-motor-and-cognitive-components-contributing-to-the-slowness-of-information-processing-in-parkinsons-disease-and-the-implication-in-the-quality-of-life/