Affiliations: [a]
Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| [b]
The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, UK
| [c]
Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, University College London, London, UK
| [d]
Department of Neuro-Otology, Charing Cross Hospital, Imperial College London, London, UK
| [e] Escuela de Fonoaudiologia, Facultad de Medicina, Clinica Alemana Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile
| [f]
Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Dr. Atbin Djamshidian, Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Anichstrasse 35, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria. Tel.: +43 512 504 23850; Fax: +43 512 504 23852; atbin.djamshidian-tehrani@i-med.ac.at. and Prof. Thomas T. Warner, Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies, Institute of Neurology, University College London, The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, UK. 1 Wakefield Street, WC1N1PJ, London, UK. Tel.: +44 02076794246; t.warner@ucl.ac.uk.
Abstract: Fifteen individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and impulsive compulsive behaviours (PD+ICB) were compared to 15 PD patients without ICBs (PD-ICB) and 15 healthy controls (HC) on a pro-saccades and an anti-saccades task to assess if ICBs are associated with distinct saccadic abnormalities. PD+ICB made shorter saccades than HC and more direction errors in the anti-saccades task than PD-ICB and HC, suggesting that patients with ICBs have greater difficulty in suppressing automatic saccades towards a given target. Saccadic assessment has the potential to evolve into a marker to guide therapeutic decisions in patients at risk of developing ICBs.
