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Slowing of high-speed memory scanning in Parkinson's disease is related to the severity of parkinsonian motor symptoms

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Journal of Neural Transmission - Parkinson's Disease and Dementia Section

Summary

High-speed memory scanning (Sternberg paradigm) was tested in a collective of 20 parkinsonian patients (10 newly diagnosed, untreated patients, duration of the disease 0.5–3.8, mean 1.5 years; 10 levodopa-treated patients, duration of the disease 4.2 to 11, mean 7.6 years). The levodopa-treated patients stopped taking levodopa before the test. There was a tendency towards retarded memory scanning in the patients' collective compared with 20 healthy controls with similar ages and verbal IQs (p=0.076, Mann-Whitney U test). The mental slowing correlated significantly with bradykinesia and the sum-score of the Columbia University Parkinson Rating Scale (p=0.021 and 0.019; Spearman rank correlation). Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA revealed a significant mental slowing in the subgroup of patients with Parkinson's disease for >4 years compared with the newly diagnosed patients and the controls (H=8.54; p=0.019 and 0.006, Mann-Whitney U test). The findings suggest a mental slowing in Parkinson's disease, which is associated with the progression of parkinsonian motor symptoms and not with depression.

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Author notes

  1. G. Ransmayr

    Present address: University Clinic of Neurology, University of Innsbruck, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Clinic of Neurology, University of Innsbruck, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    W. Bitschnau, B. Schmidhuber-Eiler, W. Berger, E. Karamat & W. Poewe

  2. Department of Biostatistics, University of Innsbruck, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    G. W. Kemmler

Authors
  1. G. Ransmayr
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  2. W. Bitschnau
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  3. B. Schmidhuber-Eiler
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  4. W. Berger
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  5. E. Karamat
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  6. W. Poewe
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  7. G. W. Kemmler
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Ransmayr, G., Bitschnau, W., Schmidhuber-Eiler, B. et al. Slowing of high-speed memory scanning in Parkinson's disease is related to the severity of parkinsonian motor symptoms. J Neural Transm Gen Sect 2, 265–275 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02252921

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02252921

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