Hengyi Rao1,2, Eugenia Mamikonyan3, John A. Detre1, Andrew D. Siderowf3, Matthew B. Stern3, Daniel Weintraub3
1Center for Functional Neuroimaging, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 2Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China; 3Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Dopaminergic replacement therapies may induce a range of impulse control disorders (ICDs) in Parkinsons disease (PD), yet the neural substrates underlying ICDs in this susceptible population are unknown. Using ASL perfusion fMRI, we found that PD patients with an active ICD have significantly reduced resting CBF in striatal and prefrontal regions compared with non-ICD PD patients, indicating that impairments in mesolimbic-frontal pathway may be the neurobiological underpinning for ICDs in PD. Moreover, a significant positive correlation between resting striatal CBF and ICD duration in active ICD patients suggests an attempt to normalize some ICD-associated neural abnormalities.