Emotional atypical arousal ratings for unpleasant stimuli in patients with Parkinson's disease.

INTRODUCTION: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms, including alteration in emotional processing and recognition of emotions. We explored the effects of PD on the emotional behavioral ratings using a battery of affective visual stimuli selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). METHODS: Twenty-two patients diagnosed with idiopathic PD and 22 healthy controls (HC), matched by age, gender, and education, were enrolled in the study. Following a clinical assessment, each participant was asked to evaluate the arousal and valence of affective visual stimuli, and response time was recorded. Disease-specific measures including the MDS Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS UPDRS) and the Non-Motor Symptom Scale (NMSS) were also collected. RESULTS: PD patients exhibited higher arousal responses compared to HC for negative/unpleasant pictures (scoring 7.32 ± 0.88 vs 5.43 ± 2.06, p < 0.001). The arousal response to negative/unpleasant pictures was correlated with measures of non-motor burden in PD (MDS UPDRS I and NMSS, rho = 0.480 and p = 0.023, rho = 0.533 and p = 0.010, respectively). CONCLUSION: Impaired emotional processing characterizes PD patients with mild disease and is related to the non-motor symptom burden. Given the importance of emotional processing for the development and maintenance of close interpersonal relationship and for coping with specific medical situations, it is crucial to direct PD patients towards therapeutic interventions focused on the recognition and processing of emotions.

Left Vagus Stimulation Modulates Contralateral Subthalamic ß Power Improving the Gait in Parkinson's Disease.

BACKGROUND: Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) showed early evidence of efficacy for the gait treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD). OBJECTIVES: Providing data on neurophysiological and clinical effects of transauricular VNS (taVNS). METHODS: Ten patients with recording deep brain stimulation (DBS) have been enrolled in a within participant design pilot study, double-blind crossover sham-controlled trial of taVNS. Subthalamic local field potentials (ß band power), Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scales (UPDRS), and a digital timed-up-and-go test (TUG) were measured and compared with real versus sham taVNS during medication-off/DBS-OFF condition. RESULTS: The left taVNS induced a reduction of the total ß power in the contralateral (ie, right) subthalamic nucleus and an improvement of TUG time, speed, and variability. The taVNS-induced ß reduction correlated with the improvement of gait speed. No major clinical changes were observed at UPDRS. CONCLUSIONS: taVNS is a promising strategy for the management of PD gait, deserving prospective trials of chronic neuromodulation. © 2023 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.