Authors: P B Forgacs I BodisWollner
Publish Date: 2004/06/30
Volume: 111, Issue: 10-11, Pages: 1317-1331
Abstract
Parkinson’s Disease PD is associated with cognitive deficits The earliest impairment is evident for executive abilities visuospatial orientation and memory Dopamine deficiency is unlikely to be singly responsible for all cognitive changes in PD Acetylcholine has an essential role in cognition thus cholinergic transmission may have an important role in nondopaminergic cognitive changes If so some cognitive defects could possibly be treated with cholineesterase inhibitors A concern is the potential negative motor effect of cholinergic medication in PD Surprisingly these are reported only in a few patients studied Establishing the relationship between select cognitive deficits and nicotinic neurotransmission may lay the foundation for rational pharmacotherapy of cognitive dysfunction in PDWe summarize anatomical physiological and pharmacological aspects of nicotinic receptor function The focus is on those nicotine receptor dependent cognitive dysfunctions which are likely to contribute to motor impairment Lastly we discuss hypotheses concerning cholinergic involvement in neuronal synchrony and sensorimotor integration in PD
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