Visual selective attention in Parkinson's disease: dissociation of exogenous and endogenous inhibition

Impairment in the inhibitory mechanism of visual selective attention in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) is controversial. The present study sought to understand disparate findings in a manner analogous to the relative preservation of exogenously evoked movement and impairment of endogenously evoked movement. The authors examined inhibition of return (i.e., exogenously evoked inhibition; IOR) and negative priming (i.e., endogenously evoked inhibition; NP) in a group of 14 patients with PD and 14 healthy controls (HC). Unlike the HC, who demonstrated significant inhibition in both tasks, the group with PD demonstrated intact inhibition only in the IOR task. Dopamine replacement therapy did not affect performance. The findings are discussed within the context of a model that differentiates the essential involvement of the basal ganglia for endogenously evoked spatial inhibition.