Frontal Assessment Battery in Parkinson's Disease: Validity and Morphological Correlates

Executive dysfunction is a common feature in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, there is a lack of brief validated instruments for executive dysfunction in PD.

The aim of the present study was to assess the relation of Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) scores to age and education, to verify the utility of FAB in the evaluation of executive dysfunction in PD and to differentiate between controls (n=41), PD patients with normal cognition (PD-NC; n=41; Hoehn and Yahr stages 2-3) and PD with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI; n=32; Hoehn and Yahr stages 2-3). In addition, we studied the relation between voxel-based morphometric (VBM) data and FAB results in PD.

We found that FAB scores are significantly related to age and education. The FAB has shown discriminative validity for the differentiation of PD-MCI from PD-NC and controls (area under the curve >.80). Also, the VBM analysis revealed lower FAB scores are specifically related to lower gray matter density in the right ventromedial prefrontal areas and precuneus.

The FAB can be recommended as a valid instrument for PD-MCI Level I screening. FAB is sensitive to frontal lobe involvement in PD as reflected by lower gray matter density in prefrontal areas. (JINS, 2017, 23, 675-684).