FRONTAL DYSFUNCTION IN EARLY PARKINSONS-DISEASE

Recent studies have suggested that patients with Parkinson's disease ( PD) share many of the behavioral deficits found following lesions to t he pre-frontal cortex. We assessed the performance of a group of 22 mi ldly impaired, not-demented parkinsonians (I or II Hoehn & Yahr stage) in a test of classification and recall of pictures of familiar object s, which has been demonstrated to be sensitive to frontal damage in pa tients with unilateral cerebral excision. Parkinsonians utilized fewer categories than normal controls for object classification, while no s ignificant difference was found in the immediate and delayed recall sc ores. These results support the contention that a subclinical dysfunct ion of frontal type may be present even in the early stages of PD. A s ubanalysis of the data suggests that this dysfunction could possibly b e aggravated by anticholinergic drugs.