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15th Congress of the European Federation of Neurological Societies
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ePosters
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A virtualarena test indicates impaired striatal spatial memory strategies in mild to moderate Parkinson\'sdisease
Mrs. Thordis Gudmundsdottir
Sweden 
Disclosure : The study was supported by the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish state under the LUA/ALF-agreement, The Medical association of Gothenburg and Gun and Bertil Stohnes Fond.
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7 slide(s) – English – 2011-09-10
Title:
A virtual arena test indicates impaired striatal spatial memory strategies in mild to moderate Parkinson\'s disease
Author(s):
T. Gudmundsdottir1, C.F. Doeller2, N. Burgess2, F. Bergquist1,3
Institute(s):
1Neurology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2Inst Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK, 3Pharmacology, University of Gothenburg, Inst neuroscience and physiology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Text:
Spatial memory is encoded in at least two different memory systems in the brain, a hippocampus-based and a striatum-based system. A recent fMRI study shows distinct and separate activation of these systems when subjects collect and replace objects paired to a movable landmark (striatal system) or borders and distant cues (hippocampal system) in a virtual arena[1]. We hypothesised that the striatal dopamine denervation in Parkinson\'s disease leads to compromised landmark based spatial orientation. A pilot study was performed with 17 patients with left sided or bilateral parkinsonism with mild clinical symptoms (median Hoehn and Yahr =1, UPDRS = 8±7), and 13 age matched controls. Participants collected and replaced two objects in the virtual arena and were given visual feedback on their performance at each trial. By moving the landmark it is possible to determine if the subject is biased towards landmark (striatal) or border (hippocampal) orientation strategies. Control subjects were biased towards landmark strategy, something we found was not the case with Parkinson patients (unpaired t-test vs. controls, p= 0.029, t=2.301 df=28). This finding suggests that striatal spatial memory strategies are compromised early in Parkinson\'s disease. Deficient striatal memory functions may lead to poor judgement of distance at close range and could contribute to disturbed motor planning, balance problems and falls, problems known to have considerable clinical impact in advanced Parkinson\'s disease. Reference: 1. Doeller C, King J, Burgess N (2008) Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 105(15):5915-5920
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