Parkinson's Targets Two Distinct Brain Networks, Finds Study

A new research has found that Parkinson's disease targets two distinct brain networks in humans. The study, carried out by David Eidelberg, MD, head of the Center for Neurosciences

A new research has found that Parkinson's disease targets two distinct brain networks in humans.

The study, carried out by David Eidelberg, MD, head of the Center for Neurosciences at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and his colleagues, found that Parkinson's attacks another brain network that regulates cognitive thought and the ability to perform everyday tasks.

Eidelberg and his team measured and quantified this network of brain regions during a five-year study of newly diagnosed Parkinson's patients who agreed to be followed several times over the course of the study.

This is the first longitudinal study of Parkinson's disease using a brain scan to follow these Parkinson's network over time. The new report appears in an online version in the journal Brain, and will be published soon in a print version.

Dr. Eidelberg said that the new precise technology, to diagnose the two brain networks, could be used to measure the degenerative disease process and the person's response to treatments.

The study also shows that the standard drugs used to treat Parkinson's modify the areas that are involved in movement but not those that regulate cognition. The network that grows abnormal over time includes an called the pre-frontal cortex, known as the brain's executive secretary; organizing, planning and carrying out tasks in order of importance. It's the same region that is hard-hit in mild cognitive impairment, the precursor to Alzheimer's dementia. But Eidelberg said that the symptoms in the two diseases are quite different. But thinking that medicines used for Alzheimer's might help normalize this network, the scientists gave Parkinson's patients eight weeks of treatment, but it didn't work.

"We really don't know precisely what's going on in this newly-identified network, but we can begin to ask questions and figure it out. We don't even know whether this network can be fixed," said Dr. Eidelberg.

In 1999, the researchers recruited 15 patients with early stage Parkinson's and signed them on to get brain scans at different points all through the study. Some were on medicines and some were not. The first networks to be identified were the basal ganglia, thalamus and brain stem that regulate movement. The scans they used measured glucose metabolism - the brain's fuel - and identified areas in this motor network that showed decreased metabolic activity and some areas that had increased metabolic activity. Over time, the cognitive network became apparent. And as the disease progressed and symptoms worsened, this network also took its toll.

"The circuits are like a fingerprint of the disease. As the disease gets worse, the fingerprint is much easier to identify. The cognitive problems are real and have to be addressed. The medicines for Parkinson's don't seem to do anything to alter these networks and we need new ones to target these symptoms," Dr. Eidelberg said.

Eidelberg added that the networks could be used as biomarkers to diagnose the disease. The scientists have also developed mathematical computer models to determine how fast the disease will progress.

"These scanning techniques may be helpful in determining what treatments work and what don't," he said.

Source-ANI
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