An Analysis of Working Memory in Parkinsons Disease with Reference to Deficiency of Dopamine: An FMRI Study

¹Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Dehli, Dehli, India; ²Department of NMR, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, Delhi, India

The present fMRI study observes how dopaminergic drugs may influence the areas of working memory in patients suffering from Parkinsons disease. Memory task was recalling of scenes and everyday objects (26 in number) from among 96 images. Areas associated with memory retrieval, visual processing and episodic memory were active during off and on stages. Similar feedback responses or reaction times during on and off states show that memory was unaffected with drug administration in these subjects. L-dopa is found to increase attentional capabilities of the PD subjects, but may not have any significant role in working memory.