Neural correlates of standing imagery and execution in Parkinsonian patients: The relevance to striatal dopamine dysfunction

als.fakia shared this article with you from Inoreader Neural correlates of standing imagery and execution in Parkinsonian patients: The relevance to striatal dopamine dysfunction Via PLOS ONE Alerts: New Articles by Yutaro Mori, Etsuji Yoshikawa, Masami Futatsubashi, Yasuomi Ouchi It has been reported that the cerebellar vermis is equally involved in both motor imagery about axial movement and the actual execution of postural balance in healthy human subjects, but this finding is yet to be explored in Parkinson's disease (PD). We therefore investigated the neuronal responses during observation of standing posture, imagination of standing and the assumption of an upright posture in ten drug-naïve PD patients using positron emission tomography (PET) with [15O]H2O and evaluated dopamine dysfunction by measuring the level of dopamine transporter binding of [11C]CFT. Within-group statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analysis showed similar cerebellar activation during imagination of standing and its real execution between the PD and control groups (12 healthy subjects); i.e., increases in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) were observed in the anterior cerebellar vermis during motor imagination and the posterior vermis during st anding. A comparison between the groups showed that the motor execution of standing significantly activated the superior part of the posterior vermis (declive VI) and the paracentral sulcus region in the PD patients, while the prefrontal cortices were deactivated during standing (p11C]CFT binding (p11C]CFT binding (p View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.