Pallidotomy revisited. Analysis of posteroventral pallidotomy

Posteroventral pallidotomy (PVP) has been shown to alleviate motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD), e.g., rigidity, secondary akinesia due to existence of muscle rigidity and slight tremor, but not the marked tremor. For the latter, additional lesion of the ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus is necessary. Akinesia was divided into three subtypes, and the influence of PVP on each type is described. Primary akinesia is not changed by either PVP or thalamotomy but responds well to L-dopa. Psychological symptoms, i.e., depressive mood, loss of initiation or abulia, and lowered emotional activity, which are generally termed as bradyphrenia, benefit well from PVP but less from thalamotomy. This effect is interpreted as due to the lesion extending into the ventral pallidum, where a small posterior part of the limbic-motor projections may possibly be involved. Such experience suggests that the third type of akinesia in PD, named the 'psychomotor or limbic-motor type' by the author, can be improved by the surgical procedure on the ventral globus pallidus. These observations offer an important chance to understand the psychological symptoms in PD as a result of dopamine deficiency of ventral tegmental area neurons projecting to the ventral striatum, which further influences the ventral pallidum.