Cerebral cortical thickness and cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease

In Parkinson’s disease (PD), reduced cerebral cortical thickness may reflect network-based degeneration. This study performed cognitive assessment and brain MRI in 30 PD participants and 41 controls at baseline and 18 months later. We hypothesized that cerebral cortical thickness and volume, as well as change in these metrics, would differ between PD participants who remained cognitively stable and those who experienced cognitive decline. Dividing the participant sample into PD-stable, PD-decline, and control-stable groups, we compared mean cortical thickness and volume within segments that comprise the prefrontal cognitive-control, memory, dorsal spatial, and ventral object-based networks at baseline. We then compared the rate of change in cortical thickness and volume between the same groups using a vertex-wise approach. We found that the PD-decline group had lower cortical thickness within all 4 cognitive networks in comparison with controls, as well as lower cortical thickness within the prefrontal and medial temporal networks in comparison with the PD-stable group. The PD-decline group also experienced a greater rate of volume loss in the lateral temporal cortices in comparison with the control group. This study suggests that lower thickness and volume in prefrontal, medial, and lateral temporal regions may portend cognitive decline in PD.