
95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychopathology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1478500
This article is part of the Research Topic Translational research advancements utilizing the Iowa Gambling Task in preclinical and clinical studies: 30 years of the IGT View all 7 articles
The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by motor and cognitive impairments. Subtle cognitive impairment may precede motor impairment. There is a substantial need for innovative assessments, such as those involving decision-making, to detect PD in the premotor phase. Evidence suggests executive dysfunction in PD can impede strategic decision-making relying on learning and feedback. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), when combined with eye-tracking, may be a valuable synergistic strategy for predicting impaired decision-making and therapeutic non-compliance. Participants with PD and matched healthy controls completed the Movement Disorders Society's modified Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS-MDS), 6-minute Walk test (6MWT), Timed Up and Go test (TUG), Trail Making Test A and B (TMT A and B), Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). Eye tracking was recorded during the IGT. The PD group scored significantly higher on UPDRS subscales and travelled less distance during the 6MWT despite equivalent performance on the TUG. The PD group also had longer completion times on TMT A and B and more errors on TMT B. Overall IGT winning scores were marginally worse in PD. However, when analyzed as a function of performance over time, the PD group performed significantly worse by task end, thus suggesting impaired decision-making. PD participants exhibited a 72% reduction in blinks despite equivalent outcomes in other eyemovements. Combined with established motor and executive function tests, the inclusion of eye-tracking with the IGT may represent a powerful combination of noninvasive methods to detect and monitor PD early in progression.
Keywords: Parkinson's disease, eye tracking, Iowa Gambling, decision-making, Eyeblinks
Received: 09 Aug 2024; Accepted: 07 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Doshier, Ryals, Nejtek and Salvatore. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Anthony Joseph Ryals, University of North Texas, Denton, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Research integrity at Frontiers
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.