Backward inhibition in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease has been associated with executive dysfunction, especially task-switching deficits. One factor contributing to task-switching costs is backward inhibition, as measured by less efficient performance when switching back to a task from which one has recently switched away. This alternating-switch cost is considered to be due to persisting inhibition of elements of the previous task set after a switch. In this study, patients with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease and controls performed three tasks (A-C) in an intermixed fashion. Patients with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease and controls showed equivalent response times. However, the patients made significantly more errors during an alternating switch (i.e., ABA) than did control participants. In contrast, there was no group difference in accuracy in the comparable condition of two consecutive switches between different tasks (i.e., CBA). In addition, accuracy for the two groups was similar for trials in which the task was repeated. These data suggest that Parkinson's disease is associated with either increased backward inhibition, or a reduced ability to overcome this inhibition when reactivating a recently abandoned task set.