TMS-evoked potentials unveil occipital network involvement in patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease within 5 years of inclusion

Noa Zifman, Ofri Levy-Lamdan, Tal Hiller, Avner Thaler, Iftach Dolev, Anat Mirelman, Hilla Fogel, Mark Hallett, Inbal Maidan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Distinguishing Parkinson’s disease (PD) subgroups may be achieved by observing network responses to external stimuli. We compared TMS-evoked potential (TEP) measures from stimulation of bilateral motor cortex (M1), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and visual cortex (V1) between 62 PD patients (age: 69.9 ± 7.5) and 76 healthy controls (age: 69.2 ± 4.3) using a TMS–EEG protocol. TEP measures were analyzed using two-way ANCOVA adjusted for MOCA. PD patients were divided into tremor dominant (TD), non-tremor dominant (NTD) and rapid disease progression (RDP) subgroups. PD patients showed lower wide-waveform adherence (wWFA) (p = 0.025) and interhemispheric connectivity (IHCCONN) (p < 0.001) compared to healthy controls. Lower occipital IHCCONN correlated with advanced disease stage (r = −0.37, p = 0.0039). The RDP and NTD groups showed lower wWFA in response to occipital stimulation than the TD group (p = 0.005). Occipital TEP measures identified RDP patients with 85% accuracy. These findings demonstrate occipital network involvement in early PD stages, suggesting that TEP measures offer insights into altered networks in PD subgroups.

Original languageEnglish
Article number182
JournalNPJ Parkinson's Disease
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 30 Sep 2024

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Clinical Neurology
  • Neurology
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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