Dopamine improves impaired multisensory perception in Parkinson's disease

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease primarily associated with movement deficits. Although far less studied, PD patients also suffer from sensory and cognitive deficits. In this study, we investigate potential deficits of PD in multisensory perception. Methods: To test multisensory perception, we applied a visuo-tactile illusion. If a brief visual stimulus (˜16 ms), accompanied by two electrical pulses (˜0.3 ms), is presented with a short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of ˜50 – 100 ms, this paradigm is known to induce the perception of a second, illusory visual stimulus in healthy…