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Saccadic Direction Errors are Associated with Impulsive Compulsive Behaviours in Parkinson's Disease Patients
Pedro Barbosa1,2, Diego Kaski3,4, Patricia Castro5
1Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK.
Abstract:
Fifteen individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) and impulsive compulsive behaviours (PD+ICB) were compared to 15 PD patients without ICBs (PD-ICB) and 15 healthy controls (HC) on a pro-saccades and an anti-saccades task to assess if ICBs are associated with distinct saccadic abnormalities. PD+ICB made shorter saccades than HC and more direction errors in the anti-saccades task than PD-ICB and HC, suggesting that patients with ICBs have greater difficulty in suppressing automatic saccades towards a given target. Saccadic assessment has the potential to evolve into a marker to guide therapeutic decisions in patients at risk of developing ICBs.