Pathologic correlates of dementia in Parkinson's disease

Histopathologic studies of the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and three subcortical nuclei were performed in four patients with Parkinson's disease whose mental status had been evaluated by neuropsychologic testing. Clinicopathologic correlations suggest that dementia with marked visuospatial disturbance as well as severe aphasia may be associated with severe neuronal loss in subcortical nuclei, without significant numbers of plaques or tangles in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. Furthermore, memory loss may not be consistently related to neuronal loss in the nucleus basalis of Meynert, particularly in non-Lewy body parkinsonism.