Parkinson's disease is associated with an overactivity of executive motor cortical areas compared with Parkin-associated parkinsonism

Aims: Though mutations in the Parkin gene can lead to a phenotype indistinguishable from that of Parkinson's disease (PD), patients with Parkin-associated parkinsonism may present with atypical clinical features. They are often affected relatively early in life but often show a benign course of the disease with a stable long-term response to levodopa therapy suggesting differences in the pathophysiology between PD and Parkin-associated parkinsonism. Methods: Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 1.5 T to compare the movement-related activation patterns in 10 patients with PD and 10 patient…