Ling Li, Tan Bo, Estela Martinez Lopez, Mirian Roson Gonzalez, Miguel Fernandez-Del-Olmo, Tanya Gurevich, Lydia Vela Desojo, Noa Fogelson
Young adults with clinically diagnosed GAD and self-reported HSS showed distributed alterations in resting-state alpha-band phase-based connectivity. Convergent network-level, nodal, and graph-theoretical findings indicated stronger weighted integration and clustering. However, these results should not be interpreted as biomarkers of objectively verified sleep loss, and the independent contributions of anxiety and sleep status cannot be determined.
OBJECTIVE: Methylphenidate (MPD) may have therapeutic benefits in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. However, the effects of MPD on attentional functional connectivity (FC) networks, in PD, have not been investigated to date. Our objective was to examine the effects of a single dose of MPD, on event-related FC, in PD. The study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single-dose, cross-over clinical trial.
METHODS: We recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) in PD patients during the performance of an extended version of a visual oddball task. We evaluated FC during the processing of task-relevant (targets, predictive sequence) and task-irrelevant (randomized standards) stimuli, using the weighted phase-locking index and graph theory. Two recording sessions (20 mg MPD or placebo) were performed in each patient.
RESULTS: MPD, in comparison with placebo, modulated FC during the processing of standards, within the theta band, in PD patients. MPD induced decreases in the FC and global efficiency within fronto-parietal networks, during the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli.
CONCLUSIONS: In PD patients, the administration of a single dose of MPD, compared with placebo, attenuated FC within fronto-parietal networks, during the processing of non-informative standards.
SIGNIFICANCE: MPD may have cognitive therapeutic effects in PD, by modulating attention during the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli.