Mid-frontal theta activity is diminished during cognitive control in Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Mid-frontal theta activity underlies cognitive control. These 4-8 Hz rhythms are modulated by cortical dopamine and can be abnormal in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we investigated mid-frontal theta deficits in PD patients during a task explicitly involving cognitive control. We collected scalp EEG from high-performing PD patients and demographically matched controls during performance of a modified Simon reaction-time task. This task involves cognitive control to adjudicate response conflict and error-related adjustments. Task performance of PD patients was indistinguishable from controls, but PD patients had less mid-frontal theta modulations around cues and responses. Critically, PD patients had attenuated mid-frontal theta activity specifically associated with response conflict and post-error processing. These signals were unaffected by medication or motor scores. Post-error mid-frontal theta activity was correlated with disease duration. Classification of control vs. PD from these data resulted in a specificity of 69% and a sensitivity of 72%. These findings help define the scope of mid-frontal theta aberrations during cognitive control in PD, and may provide insight into the nature of PD-related cognitive dysfunction.

Frontal theta and beta oscillations during lower-limb movement in Parkinson’s disease

“…Time-frequency and correlation results suggest the role of frontal theta in motor and cognitive and motor control systems (see figures 4 and 5), which are required to initiate and execute lower-body movements, 20,25 though frontal beta activity is mostly associated with motor control system. 21,22 As proposed by previous reports, frontal regions may play an important role in top-down signaling to guide adjustment of preparatory and execution plans during motor tasks.…”

“…Mid-frontal theta-rhythms have been associated with cognitive control, and can be associated with impairments in cognitive control in PD patients. 20,25 Our past work has suggested that frontal theta-rhythms are not modulated by levodopa. 20 In our study, PDFOG+ patients had impaired cognitive control relative to PDFOG-patients and attenuated frontal theta-rhythms.…”

Cognitive control involves theta power within trials and beta power across trials in the prefrontal-subthalamic network

“…Similarly, although early increases in mPFC theta power and mPFC-STN phase synchrony may be considered anti-kinetic, later theta power increases in the STN may actually promote movement. Our inferences are drawn from data collected in patients with Parkinson’s disease, and so should be interpreted with caution as dopamine depletion and DBS surgery are known to alter the basal ganglia activity (Hammond et al, 2007; Singh et al, 2018). Nonetheless, we find that patterns of theta and beta band activity in the STN and mPFC play complementary, temporally sequenced roles in supporting different processes that together contribute to cognitive control.…”

Electrophysiology as a theoretical and methodological hub for the neural sciences

“…(a) Frontal midline theta power is enhanced during the need for control, whereas mediolateral theta phase synchrony is proposed to reflect the communication of this need to lateral frontal areas (Cavanagh & Frank, ). (b) Different psychiatric and neurological diseases characterized by frontal dysfunction have different patterns of theta band dynamics; 1 Cavanagh, Meyer, et al (); 2 Singh, Pirio Richardson, Narayanan, and Cavanagh (); 3 Ryman et al (). (c) Using features identified in the studies in (b), receiver operating characteristic (isosensitivity) plots can be created to determine the classification success against a control group.…”