The following is a summary of the “Reduced power and phase-locking values were accompanied by thalamus, putamen, and hippocampus atrophy in Parkinson’s disease with mild cognitive impairment: an event-related oscillation study,” published in the January 2023 issue of Neurobiology of Aging by Gündüz, et al.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an essential nonmotor symptom of Parkinson’s disease (PD), a complex neurodegenerative disorder with multiple manifestations. Under neurodegenerative conditions, it is hypothesized that Event-related oscillations (EROs) will reflect the cognitive status of structures below the cortex. Using visual EROs, this study compared 36 people with PD-MCI and 32 people with PD-CN to 60 HCs on measures of event-related spectral perturbation, inter-trial coherence, and subcortical grey matter volumes based on the FIRST algorithm. 

Exploratory research was conducted on the relationships between electrophysiological, neuropsychological, and structural variables. Patients with PD-MCI and PD-CN had reduced delta and alpha phase-locking compared to HC, but PD-MCI patients showed more widespread electrophysiological abnormalities across frontal, central, parietal, and temporal regions across almost all frequency bands, along with atrophy in the bilateral thalamus, hippocampus, and right putamen. 

Without showing any of the subcortical differences seen in PD-MCI, PD-CN had smaller hippocampal volumes than HC. EROs also correlated moderately to highly with structural and neuropsychological measures. As suggested by these results, the detected abnormalities of PD-CN and PD-MCI may reflect a complex interplay between electrophysiological, neuropsychological, and structural parameters.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S019745802200207X