Category: Allied Healthcare Professionals
Objective: The aims of this study were to explore the feasibility of the short Weekly Calendar Planning Activity (WCPA-10) to investigate functional cognition in patients with PD compared to healthy controls (HC), and to evaluate subtle cognitive changes using the WCPA in non-manifesting carriers of mutations in the LRRK2 and GBA genes.
Background: Subtle executive dysfunction is common in the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease (PD), even when general cognitive abilities are intact. Executive Functions (EF) are required for optimal participation, especially in complex daily activities, thus its crucial to evaluate EF with ecologically valid tools reflecting everyday life. The WCPA is a performance-based test of functional cognition that assesses EF via a complex everyday cognitive task of scheduling meetings into a weekly calendar and may unmask early cognitive changes.
Method: The study included 25 patients with early stage idiopathic PD (iPD) who do not carry any of the founder GBA mutations, or the LRRK2-G2019S, 29 non-manifesting carriers of the G2019S-LRRK2 mutation (n=14) and mutations in the GBA gene (n=15) and 23 HC who do not carry these mutations. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the Color Trails Test (CTT) and the WCPA-10 were used to assess cognitive function.
Results: The iPD patients did not differ in global cognition from HC; however, iPD followed less rules (p=.031), were slower (p=.006), less efficient (p=.003) and used more strategies than HC (p=.019) in the WCPA. There was no significant between groups difference in accuracy (p=.235). Non-manifesting carriers and HC were similar in all cognitive tests.
Conclusion: The study affirms the unprecedented use of the WCPA-10 as a feasible and accurate tool for detecting subtle executive dysfunction in early stages of PD relating to everyday life, potentially helping to reduce withdrawal from activities by functional treatment goals.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
T. Schejter Margalit, N. Ben Binyamin, A. Thaler, I. Maidan, J. Cederbaum, A. Orr-Urtreger, M. Gana Weisz, O. Goldstein, N. Giladi, A. Mirelman, R. Kizony. Measuring functional cognition with the Short Weekly Calendar Planning Activity in patients with Parkinson’s disease and non-manifesting LRRK2 and GBA carriers [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2022; 37 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/measuring-functional-cognition-with-the-short-weekly-calendar-planning-activity-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-and-non-manifesting-lrrk2-and-gba-carriers/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2022 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/measuring-functional-cognition-with-the-short-weekly-calendar-planning-activity-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-and-non-manifesting-lrrk2-and-gba-carriers/