Neuroimaging Correlates of Visual Hallucinations in Parkinson Disease

A novel neuroimaging technique finds fiber-specific reductions in white matter associated with hallucinations.

Visual hallucinations and visual-processing abnormalities in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) are known harbingers of future dementia. Despite this clinical correlate, neuroimaging findings that precede the earliest stages of cognitive decline in PD are not well-established. The present researchers used a novel neuroimaging method (fixel-based analysis of MRI data) to analyze micro- and macro-structural changes in white-matter tracts in 105 patients with PD. The team hypothesized that atrophy of white matter would be seen in PD patients with hallucinations, visual dysfunction, or both.

Among patients with PD, macrostructural changes were found within the splenium of the corpus callosum and left posterior thalamic radiation in the 19 pati…

Reviewing Author

Matthew E. Peters, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory Boardemvitals, Inc.

EquityRose: Smarter Mental Health

Grant/Research SupportDepartment of Defense, National Institute on Aging

Matthew E. Peters, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory Boardemvitals, Inc.

EquityRose: Smarter Mental Health

Grant/Research SupportDepartment of Defense, National Institute on Aging

Neuroimaging Correlates of Visual Hallucinations in Parkinson Disease

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Reviewing Author