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TMS-evoked potentials unveil occipital network involvement in patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease within 5 years of inclusion

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Distinguishing Parkinson’s disease (PD) subgroups may be achieved by observing network responses to external stimuli. We compared TMS-evoked potential (TEP) measures from stimulation of bilateral motor cortex (M1), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and visual cortex (V1) between 62 PD patients (age: 69.9 ± 7.5) and 76 healthy controls (age: 69.2 ± 4.3) using a TMS–EEG protocol. TEP measures were analyzed using two-way ANCOVA adjusted for MOCA. PD patients were divided into tremor dominant (TD), non-tremor dominant (NTD) and rapid disease progression (RDP) subgroups. PD patients showed lower wide-waveform adherence (wWFA) ( p = 0.025) and interhemispheric connectivity (IHC CONN ) ( p < 0.001) compared to healthy controls. Lower occipital IHC CONN correlated with advanced disease stage ( r = −0.37, p = 0.0039). The RDP and NTD groups showed lower wWFA in response to occipital stimulation than the TD group ( p = 0.005). Occipital TEP measures identified RDP patients with 85% accuracy. These findings demonstrate occipital network involvement in early PD stages, suggesting that TEP measures offer insights into altered networks in PD subgroups.

Source: npj Parkinson s Disease

DOI: 10.1038/s41531-024-00793-0