Left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) thickness in Parkinson’s disease
patients is associated with abnormal audiovisual conflict
Abstract
Audiovisual conflict control is an important cognitive function in
humans. However, it was not clear whether there was a defect in
audiovisual conflict control in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, nor
was it clear how it was reflected at periods of perception and response
in the cognitive process. We recruited 27 PD patients and 22 healthy
controls (HC) to complete audiovisual matching task to investigate the
audiovisual conflict in PD patients at different processing periods and
its relationship with cortical thickness. Behavioral results showed that
HC group showed stronger visual interference at both periods of
perception and response. But in PD patients, there was no significant
difference between visual interference and auditory interference at
period of perception, indicating the abnormal audiovisual conflict. In
addition, the cortical thickness of left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) in
PD patients was positively correlated with the sensory interference
(visual interference > auditory interference) at period of
perception, and the thinner the left MFG was, the weaker sensory
interference was. The abnormal audiovisual conflict in PD patients was
reflected at period of perception, and was associated with the cortical
thickness of the left MFG, revealing the important role of the left MFG
in conflict control in PD patients.