Objective: The current study investigates semantic processing (SP) and body representation (BR) in early Parkinson’s disease patients (ePDp) compared with neurologically healthy participants.

Background: Although the embodiment of language has recently gained large interest in research on neurodegenerative motor disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, a topic that remains under-investigated is how body is described and imaged, i.e. represented, in such pathologies.

Method: The ePDp group and healthy control group were assessed via (a) clinical, (b) neuropsychological, and (c) experimental tests. (a) ePDp participants who met UK Parkinson’s Disease Society Brain Bank criteria (1) were evaluated using the UPDRS part III; and stages I and II of the Hoehn and Yahr scale (2). (b) A cognitive screening evaluation was carried out through the Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination- revised (3) and INECO frontal screening (4). (c) We compared the performance of ePDp and healthy control group with three BR tasks (body-part localisation [BL], body-part matching [BM] and body-part and objects matching [BOL] tasks) and two SP tasks (Kissing and Dancing [KD] and Pyramids and Palm Trees [PPT] tests).

Results: Regarding neuropsychological performance, no differences were found between PD patients and healthy controls in ACE-R [t(16)= -1.49; p = 0.15] or IFS [t(16)= -0.39; p = 0.69] total scores. The results indicate significant differences between the groups in the KD test [t(16)= -4.49; p<0.01]and two of the BR tests; the BL [t(16)= -2.20; p = 0.04] and BM [t(16)= -2.55; p = 0.02]tests. There were no significant differences between the two groups of participants regarding the PPT and BOL tests.

Conclusion: We found that ePDp showed impairments in BR task relative to healthy controls This is, to our knowledge, the first behavioural study showing that BR is affected in ePDp.

References: (1) Hughes AJ, Daniel SE, Kilford L, and Lees AJ. Accuracy of clinical diagnosis of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease: A clinico- pathological study of 100 cases. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 55(3): 181e184, 1992. (2) Hoehn MM and Yahr MD. Parkinsonism: Onset, progression and mortality. Neurology, 17(5): 427e442, 1967. (3) Torralva, T., Roca, M., Gleichgerrcht, E., Bonifacio, A., Raimondi, C., & Manes, F. (2011). Validación de la versión en español del Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-Revisado (ACE-R). Neurologia, 26(6), 351-356. (4) Torralva, T., Roca, M., Gleichgerrcht, E., Lopez, P., & Manes, F. (2009b). INECO Frontal Screening (IFS): a brief, sensitive, and specific tool to assess executive functions in dementia. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 15(5), 777e786.

« Back to 2019 International Congress

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/body-representation-impairments-in-parkinsons-disease-a-preliminary-report/