Brain activation underlying turning in Parkinson’s disease patients with and without freezing of gait: a virtual reality fMRI study

BACKGROUND: Freezing of gait is a debilitating symptom affecting many patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), causing severe immobility and decreased quality of life. Turning is known to be the most common trigger for freezing and also causes the highest rates of falls. However, the pathophysiological basis for these effects is not well understood. METHODS: This study used a virtual reality paradigm in combination with functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the neural correlates underlying turning in 17 PD patients with freezing of gait (FOG) and 10 PD patients without FOG while off their dopaminergic medication. Participants used foot pedals to navigate a virtual environment, which allowed for blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses and footstep latencies to be compared between periods of straight “walking” and periods of turning through 90°. BOLD data were then analyzed using a mixed effects analysis. RESULTS: Within group similarities revealed that overall, PD patients with freezing relied heavily on cortical control to enable effective stepping with increased visual cortex activation during turning. Between groups differences showed that when turning, patients with freezing preferentially activated inferior frontal regions that have been implicated in the recruitment of a putative stopping network. In addition, freezers failed to activate premotor and superior parietal cortices. Finally, increased task-based functional connectivity was found in subcortical regions associated with gait and stopping within the freezers group during turning. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that an increased propensity towards stopping in combination with reduced sensorimotor integration may underlie the neurobiology of freezing of gait during turning.