Observation on prefrontal cortex activation in patients with Parkinson’s disease: a fNIRS study

作者：Yingqi Li, T. Hu, Yingpeng Wang, Jie Wang, Shuyan Qie, Congxiao Wang · 发表于：Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3389/fnagi.2025.1560315 · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Balance, Gait, and Falls Prevention、Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments、Motor Control and Adaptation

Background Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) commonly experience difficulties when performing a second task while walking. The mechanisms underlying dual-task walking deficits remain poorly understood. In previous studies the second tasks were often simplistic, typically comprising questions from standardized cognitive assessments. Additionally, existing fNIRS studies comparing PD patients and healthy controls have reported inconsistent findings, limiting our understanding of prefrontal cortex (PFC) contributions to cognitive-motor integration. Methods Forty-two healthy older adults (15 men and 27 women, age 59.97 ± 5.58 years) and fifty-eight patients with PD (25 men and 33 women, age 61.07 ± 7.56 years, Hoehn and Yahr stage 1∼3) were enrolled. The protocol consisted of three repetitions of these conditions: stationary marching and marching while two-digit arithmetic calculating. Researchers used fNIRS to measure PFC activation and changes in △HbO2 concentration during tasks execution. Results Healthy controls demonstrated task-dependent prefrontal modulation - selective activation (6/22 channels, p < 0.05) during single-task conditions contrasted with global prefrontal engagement (22/22 channels, p < 0.05) under dual-task demands. In contrast, PD patients showed widespread activation across all 22 channel regions during both single and dual tasks ( p < 0.05). During task switching, healthy subjects experienced significant activation increases in 15...