Jay Alberts, PhD, Assistant Staff, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, discusses fMRI changes seen in a study of Parkinson’s Disease patients, in which supplementary motor area activation as well as activation in subcortical areas increased both with forced exercise and use of various medications.

Summary:
Functional MRI changes in the brains of Parkinson’s Disease patients were recently shown in a Cleveland Clinic study to occur in cortical and subcortical areas with either forced exercise or medication use.

References and Resources
van Eimeren T, Monchi O, Ballanger B, Strafella AP. Dysfunction of the default mode network in Parkinson disease: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Arch Neurol. 2009 Jul;66(7):877-83.
Feng F, You H, Wang H, Zheng FL, Jin ZY, Cui LY. [Phase-weighted imaging in differentiating multiple system atrophy from idiopathic Parkinson disease.] Zhongguo Yi Xue Ke Xue Yuan Xue Bao. 2009 Apr;31(2):129-33. Chinese.

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