Cortical connectivity in Parkinson’s patients during initiation and selection of internally motivated actions

Introduction: Patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease (PD) often show deficits in the self-initiation and selection of movements which can be partly compensated when using external cues. We investigated neural correlates of impairments in the initiation and selection of self-initiated versus externally cued movements in PD and how behavioral changes relate to medication and changes in fMRI activity and connectivity patterns. Methods: 12 PD patients and 12 healthy controls performed a computerized motor task while being scanned with fMRI at 3 Tesla. Patients performed the task twice, under regular dopaminergi…