Professor David Brooks and Adjmal Nahimi, MD, Postdoc, have received 2.550.162 Dkr from The Danish Council for Independent Research.

Project: Noradrenergic dysfunction and slowing of cortical oscillatory activity in Parkinson´s disease patients with mild cognitive impairment

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia are highly prevalent causes of severe disability in patients with
Parkinson´s disease (PD) and are related to early neurophysiological and neurochemical abnormalities.
In the present study we propose to perform a longitudinal multimodal imaging study to elucidate the combined roles of noradrenergic deficits and neurophysiological abnormalities in MCI and dementia in PD patients.
Specifically, noradrenergic deficits, as measured with positron emission tomography, using the selective tracer [11C]MeNER, will be correlated with neurophysiological abnormalities detected with high density electroencephalography and with longitudinal measurements of cognitive function.
The findings of this study could potentially have broad implications in the diagnosis and treatment of dementia caused by other neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer´s disease. Thus, this study will directly link noradrenergic deficits with electrophysiological abnormalities.