Neuroimaging and neuropsychological assessment of freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease

INTRODUCTION: Freezing of gait (FOG) is a disabling phenomenon characterized by a brief, episodic absence or reduction of forward progression of the feet despite the intention to walk. It is a common cause of falls and mortality in cases with Parkinson's disease (PD). This article reviews neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies to date and introduces a new study of multimodal imaging and cognition in PD-FOG. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search identified studies using neuropsychological evaluation and/or neuroimaging to evaluate PD-FOG. RESULTS: Several studies have evaluated PD-FOG, but few have combined neuropsychological and comprehensive neuroimaging and none longitudinally. DISCUSSION: A study using a combined approach longitudinally evaluating cognitive dysfunction and underlying neural networks in FOG is needed. We introduce the framework of a study which demonstrates the use of establishing an infrastructure for studying neurodegenerative disorders using the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Science Center of Biomedical Research Excellence grant mechanism.