Cholinergic-dependent cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease

✍ Scribed by Dr. Bruno Dubois; François Danzé; Bernard Pillon; Guliana Cusimano; François Lhermitte; Yves Agid

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 495 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0364-5134
• DOI: 10.1002/ana.410220108

✦ Synopsis

In a double-blind cross-over study, the effects of a subthreshold dose of scopolamine (0.25 mg) on memory were compared in 32 control subjects and 32 parkinsonian patients who were without any sign of intellectual and mneniic impairment. Although the scores of the controls in the memory test battery showed no deterioration after the administration of scopolamine, the same dose resulted in significantly reduced memory performance in parkinsonian patients in two tests which involved the recognition of meaningless drawings. The selective vulnerability of parkinsonian subjects without cognitive impairment to a subthreshold dose of scopolamine suggests the existence of an underlying alteration of central cholinergic transmission. The neuropsychological findings in our study agree with postmortem biochemical data, which showed decreased cortical choline acetyltransferase activity in all parkinsonian patients, suggesting the existence of neuronal compensation in parkinsonian patients who are without cognitive impairment.