J Clin Neurol.  2018 Oct;14(4):505-512. 10.3988/jcn.2018.14.4.505.

Consolidation of a Learned Skill Correlates with Dopamine SPECT Uptake in Early Parkinson's Disease

• Nicastro N
• Manuel AL
• Garibotto
• Burkhard P
• Schnider A

• KMID: 2424179
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3988/jcn.2018.14.4.505

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Basal ganglia play a pivotal role in procedural memory. However, the correlation between skill learning and striatal 123I-ioflupane uptake in Parkinson's disease (PD) has not been reported previously. Our objective was to determine whether visuomotor skill learning is associated with striatal 123I-ioflupane uptake in early PD.
METHODS
We designed a case-control study to assess learning and consolidation of a visuomotor learning task (mirrored drawing of star-shaped figures) performed on two consecutive days by early-PD patients (disease duration < 2 years) and age-matched healthy subjects. Outcomes were the error rate and time per trial, as well as performance indices to assess the relative improvement on the first day (learning) and the retention on the second day (consolidation). For PD patients, we evaluated the correlation of skill learning with semiquantitative 123I-ioflupane uptake.
RESULTS
We included 9 PD patients and 10 control subjects with the same baseline characteristics (age, male/female ratio, educational level, Mini Mental State Examination score, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score, all p>0.18) other than the score on part III of the Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, which was higher in the PD patients (mean±SD: 15.0±10.4 vs. 1.3±1.1, p < 0.001). The learning indices were the same in the two groups (p>0.5), whereas PD patients showed a lower consolidation index for the time per trial (p=0.009). Moreover, this performance was correlated with uptake in the right caudate nucleus (Spearman's rho=0.82, p=0.007) and the right striatum (Spearman's rho=0.67, p=0.049), including when multiple linear regression adjusting for the levodopa equivalent daily dose was performed (p=0.005 for the caudate nucleus and p=0.024 for the striatum).
CONCLUSIONS
This study provides evidence of a correlation between procedural memory impairment and striatal dopaminergic dysfunction in early PD.

Keyword

Parkinson's disease; cognition; procedural memory; dopamine single photon emission computed tomography

MeSH Terms

Anxiety
Basal Ganglia
Caudate Nucleus
Cognition
Depression
Dopamine*
Healthy Volunteers
Humans
Learning
Levodopa
Linear Models
Memory
Movement Disorders
Parkinson Disease*
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*
Dopamine
Levodopa

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 ER for PD patients and control subjects in T1–T4 (day 1) and T5–T8 (day 2). Data are mean and standard deviation values. ER: error rate, PD: Parkinson's disease, T: trial.

• 

  Fig. 2 TPT for PD patients and control subjects in T1–T4 (day 1) and T5–T8 (day 2). Data are mean and standard deviation values. PD: Parkinson's disease, T: trial, TPT: time per trial.

• 

  Fig. 3 Unadjusted correlation between the right caudate nucleus semiquantitative 123I-ioflupane uptake (compared to age-dependent reference limits) and TPT consolidation index for the nine Parkinson's disease patients included in the study (R2=0.7492). Positive values of the TPT index indicate improved performance from early on day 2 to late on day 1. TPT: time per trial.

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