Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Mov Disord. 2010 Jun 15;25(8):1000-4. doi: 10.1002/mds.23005.
Freezing of gait (FOG) in Parkinson's disease (PD) is common and the pathophysiology of FOG is poorly understood. It has been hypothesized to reflect complementary yet competing frontostriatal pathways that reduce the ability to keep different tasks (motor or cognitive) on-line. This inability to "set-shift" has been proposed to trigger a freezing episode. If correct, this hypothesis would predict a differential pattern of executive dysfunction with FOG being most specifically related to attentional set-shifting. In this study, 31 patients with a range of self-reported FOG symptom severities were administered tests of executive functioning. The results demonstrate that FOG symptoms were selectively correlated with poorer performance on tasks of set-shifting, but not with a range of other executive tasks. This was apparent even after controlling for slowed processing speed, disease stage and depressive symptoms. The results support the recently proposed hypothesis for the pathophysiology underlying FOG in PD.
冻结步态（FOG）在帕金森病（PD）中很常见，但其病理生理学尚不清楚。据推测，它反映了互补但相互竞争的额纹状体通路，这些通路降低了保持不同任务（运动或认知）在线的能力。这种“定势转移”的能力下降被认为会引发冻结发作。如果这一假设是正确的，那么这一假说将预测执行功能障碍的一种差异模式，FOG 与注意力定势转移的关系最为密切。在这项研究中，31 名患者报告了一系列不同严重程度的 FOG 症状，并接受了执行功能测试。结果表明，FOG 症状与定势转移任务的表现较差呈选择性相关，但与一系列其他执行任务无关。即使在控制了处理速度减慢、疾病阶段和抑郁症状后，这一结果也是明显的。研究结果支持了最近提出的 PD 中 FOG 病理生理学假说。
