Movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease are highly prevalent and debilitating neurological conditions. Even though they are typically recognized by their cardinal motor symptoms, most affected patients also suffer from cognitive and neuropsychiatric disturbances such as depression, apathy, impulse control disorders (ICD), hallucinations, and dementia. Importantly, these non-motor symptoms are as disabling as motor symptoms, and most of them have no effective treatment currently available.
The pathological mechanisms leading to cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in movement disorders are not fully understood. However, they appear to be related to a concomitant cortical deterioration occurring early in the course of aforementioned diseases, and not uniquely associated with basal ganglia degeneration.
Therefore, a better characterization of the set of brain alterations and pathological mechanisms leading to these non-motor symptoms in movement disorders is key to design successful therapeutic strategies.
Over the last decades, cortical –and especially posterior-cortical– brain alterations have been linked to cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in movement disorders. With this Research Topic we expect to accurately characterize these brain alterations using novel neuroimaging techniques such as DTI and rsfMRI.
In particular, describing the specific topography of the brain damage associated with non-motor symptoms in movement disorders could provide researchers and clinicians a better understanding of its clinical manifestations and therapeutic management. Crucially, the ultimate goal of this Topic is to provide insights on the pathological mechanism leading to these brain damages by investigating their association with genetic and biomarker alterations related to specific neurodegenerative pathways. By identifying the precise neuropathological mechanisms involved, novel preventive and therapeutic targets could be then tested in future clinical trials.
This Research Topic welcomes Original Research works, Systematic Reviews, Brief Reports, Perspectives and Hypothesis, and Theory manuscripts with contributions to the understanding of the set of brain alterations leading to cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in movement disorders.
The subtopics include, but are not limited to, studies related to:
• The application of novel neuroimaging techniques to better characterize cortical brain alterations in movement disorders.
• Neural correlates of cognitive alterations in movement disorders.
• Neuroimaging alterations underpinning neuropsychiatric disturbances in movement disorders.
• The association between brain alterations related to non-motor symptoms in movement disorders with genetic and biomarker alterations linked to specific neurodegenerative pathways.
Movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease are highly prevalent and debilitating neurological conditions. Even though they are typically recognized by their cardinal motor symptoms, most affected patients also suffer from cognitive and neuropsychiatric disturbances such as depression, apathy, impulse control disorders (ICD), hallucinations, and dementia. Importantly, these non-motor symptoms are as disabling as motor symptoms, and most of them have no effective treatment currently available.
The pathological mechanisms leading to cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in movement disorders are not fully understood. However, they appear to be related to a concomitant cortical deterioration occurring early in the course of aforementioned diseases, and not uniquely associated with basal ganglia degeneration.
Therefore, a better characterization of the set of brain alterations and pathological mechanisms leading to these non-motor symptoms in movement disorders is key to design successful therapeutic strategies.
Over the last decades, cortical –and especially posterior-cortical– brain alterations have been linked to cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in movement disorders. With this Research Topic we expect to accurately characterize these brain alterations using novel neuroimaging techniques such as DTI and rsfMRI.
In particular, describing the specific topography of the brain damage associated with non-motor symptoms in movement disorders could provide researchers and clinicians a better understanding of its clinical manifestations and therapeutic management. Crucially, the ultimate goal of this Topic is to provide insights on the pathological mechanism leading to these brain damages by investigating their association with genetic and biomarker alterations related to specific neurodegenerative pathways. By identifying the precise neuropathological mechanisms involved, novel preventive and therapeutic targets could be then tested in future clinical trials.
This Research Topic welcomes Original Research works, Systematic Reviews, Brief Reports, Perspectives and Hypothesis, and Theory manuscripts with contributions to the understanding of the set of brain alterations leading to cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms in movement disorders.
The subtopics include, but are not limited to, studies related to:
• The application of novel neuroimaging techniques to better characterize cortical brain alterations in movement disorders.
• Neural correlates of cognitive alterations in movement disorders.
• Neuroimaging alterations underpinning neuropsychiatric disturbances in movement disorders.
• The association between brain alterations related to non-motor symptoms in movement disorders with genetic and biomarker alterations linked to specific neurodegenerative pathways.
