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Enhanced motivation of cognitive control in Parkinson's disease
Author(s) -
Timmer Monique H.M.,
Aarts Esther,
Esselink Rianne A.J.,
Cools Roshan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1111/ejn.14137
Subject(s) - parkinson's disease , psychology , cognition , depression (economics) , disease , task (project management) , effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance , neuroscience , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , medicine , management , economics , macroeconomics
Motor and cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease ( PD ) have been argued to reflect motivational deficits. In prior work, however, we have shown that motivation of cognitive control is paradoxically potentiated rather than impaired in Parkinson's disease. This is particularly surprising given the fact that Parkinson's disease is often accompanied by depression, a prototypical disorder of motivation. To replicate our previous finding and assess the effects of depression, we investigated performance of PD patients with ( n = 22) and without depression (history) ( n = 23) and age‐matched healthy controls ( n = 23) on a task specifically designed to measure the effect of reward motivation on task‐switching. We replicated previous findings by showing contrasting effects of reward motivation on task‐switching in PD patients and age‐matched healthy controls. While the promise of high versus low reward improved task‐switching in PD , it tended to impair task‐switching in age‐matched healthy controls. There were no effects of a depression (history) diagnosis in PD patients. These findings reinforce prior observations that Parkinson's disease is accompanied by enhanced incentive motivation of cognitive control and highlight the potential of incentive motivational strategies for overcoming cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease.