Impulse control disorder and response-inhibition alterations in Parkinson’s disease. A rare case of totally absent functionality of the medial-prefrontal cortex and review of literature

Abstract

This report illustrates a Parkinson’s disease (PD) patient with impulse-control disorder (ICD) and selective impairment in response-inhibition abilities as revealed by the performance in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) anterior cingulate cortex - sensitive go-nogo task. In line with hypothesis on the role of response-inhibition disabilities in the arising of impulsivity in PD, the patient completely failed the go-nogo task. Moreover, fMRI acquisition revealed absent task-sensitive activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal, and orbitofrontal cortices for the contrast nogo versus go, which signifying that a hypo-function of this network could be associated with ICD. A fronto-striatal and cingulo-frontal dysfunction may reflect impairment in metacognitive-executive abilities (such as response-inhibition, action monitoring, and error awareness) and promote compulsive repetition of behavior. Response-inhibition tasks may be useful in PD post-diagnostic phase, to better identify individuals at risk of developing ICD with dopaminergic medication.

Commentary: Metacognition and Perspective-Taking in Alzheimer's Disease: A Mini-Review

“…In their brilliant mini-review, Bertrand and colleagues drew attention to the fact that neurological and neuropsychiatric patients can present severe—and often underestimated—impairments in metacognitive abilities that may result in “ a lack of self-awareness of deficits .” Indeed, executive-metacognitive dysfunctions have been formerly associated with loss of self-awareness across major neurocognitive disorders likely due to Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (Amanzio et al, 2011 , 2013 , 2016 ), Acquired Brain Injury (Palermo et al, 2014 ), Bipolar Disorder (Palermo et al, 2015 ) and Parkinson's Disease (Amanzio et al, 2014 ; Palermo et al, 2017a , b ).…”

Altruistic Punishment and Impulsivity in Parkinson’s Disease: A Social Neuroscience Perspective

“…PD is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects the central and peripheral nervous systems. Specifically, the depletion of dopaminergic neurons affects the functioning of four fronto-striatal circuits involved in different motor, cognitive, affective, and motivational aspects of behavior (the supplementary motor area, the dorsolateral prefrontal, the orbitofrontal, and the anterior cingulate loops; Palermo et al, 2017a , b , 2018a , 2019 ; Palermo and Morese, 2018 ).…”

Social Withdrawal and Mental Health: An Interdisciplinary Approach

“…During puberty, the neurophysiological development of the prefrontal cortex occurs very quickly [1]. The prefrontal cortex deals with not only cognitive abilities such as planning and executive functions [21], but also the regulation and management of emotions. In particular, it deals with regulating behavior with respect to the emotions evoked by group dynamics such as the sense of belonging to one's own group [22,23].…”