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Association of grey matter changes with stability and flexibility of prediction in akinetic-rigid Parkinson’s disease

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Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD), which is caused by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain, results in a heterogeneous clinical picture including cognitive decline. Since the phasic signal of dopamine neurons is proposed to guide learning by signifying mismatches between subjects’ expectations and external events, we here investigated whether akinetic-rigid PD patients without mild cognitive impairment exhibit difficulties in dealing with either relevant (requiring flexibility) or irrelevant (requiring stability) prediction errors. Following our previous study on flexibility and stability in prediction (Trempler et al. J Cogn Neurosci 29(2):298–309, 2017), we then assessed whether deficits would correspond with specific structural alterations in dopaminergic regions as well as in inferior frontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, and the hippocampus. Twenty-one healthy controls and twenty-one akinetic-rigid PD patients on and off medication performed a task which required to serially predict upcoming items. Switches between predictable sequences had to be indicated via button press, whereas sequence omissions had to be ignored. Independent of the disease, midbrain volume was related to a general response bias to unexpected events, whereas right putamen volume correlated with the ability to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant prediction errors. However, patients compared with healthy participants showed deficits in stabilisation against irrelevant prediction errors, associated with thickness of right inferior frontal gyrus and left medial prefrontal cortex. Flexible updating due to relevant prediction errors was also affected in patients compared with controls and associated with right hippocampus volume. Dopaminergic medication influenced behavioural performance across, but not within the patients. Our exploratory study warrants further research on deficient prediction error processing and its structural correlates as a core of cognitive symptoms occurring already in early stages of the disease.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank the participants involved in the current investigation and Paul Reker for the UPDRS III video rating. We also acknowledge Klara Hagelweide for proof-reading and commenting on earlier versions of the manuscript. We are grateful to Anna Kuhns, Pascasie Leonie Dombert, Alexander Geiger, and Eileen Oberwelland for their assistance in data acquisition. We thank the German Research Foundation (Clinical Research Group KFO219 “Basal-Ganglia-Cortex-Loops: Mechanisms of Pathological Interactions and Therapeutic Modulation”, SCHU 1439/5 − 2) for financially supporting the project. Finally, we are thankful for the insightful and productive comments by our reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Ima Trempler, Nadiya El-Sourani & Ricarda I. Schubotz

  2. Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM3), Cognitive Neuroscience, Research Centre Jülich, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    Ima Trempler, Ellen Binder & Gereon R. Fink

  3. Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Ima Trempler & Ricarda I. Schubotz

  4. Department of Neurology, University Hospital Cologne, 50937, Cologne, Germany

    Ellen Binder, Nadiya El-Sourani, Gereon R. Fink & Ricarda I. Schubotz

  5. Department of Neurology, University Hospital Münster, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Patrick Schiffler & Jan-Gerd Tenberge

  6. Department of Life Sciences, Division of Psychology, Brunel University, UB8 3PH, Uxbridge, UK

    Anne-Marike Schiffer

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  1. Ima Trempler
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Trempler, I., Binder, E., El-Sourani, N. et al. Association of grey matter changes with stability and flexibility of prediction in akinetic-rigid Parkinson’s disease. Brain Struct Funct 223, 2097–2111 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-018-1616-2

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