Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec;29(12):3720-3727.
doi: 10.1111/ene.15513. Epub 2022 Jul 30.

Clinical and structural brain correlates of hypomimia in early-stage Parkinson's disease

Frederic Sampedro  1   2   3 , Saul Martínez-Horta  1   2   3 , Andrea Horta-Barba  1   2   3 , Michel J Grothe  1   4 , Miguel A Labrador-Espinosa  1   4 , Silvia Jesús  1   4 , Astrid Adarmes-Gomez  1   4 , Fatima Carrillo  5 , Arnau Puig-Davi  1   2   3 , Florinda Roldan-Lora  6 , Miquel Aguilar-Barbera  7 , Pau Pastor  7 , Sonia Escalante Arroyo  8 , Berta Solano Vila  9 , Anna Cots-Foraster  9 , Javier Ruiz-Martínez  10 , Francisco Carrillo-Padilla  11 , Mercedes Pueyo-Morlans  11 , Isabel Gonzalez-Aramburu  12 , Jon Infante-Ceberio  12 , Jorge Hernandez-Vara  13 , Oriol de Fabregues-Boixar  13 , Teresa de Deus Fonticoba  14 , Asuncion Avila  15 , Juan Carlos Martínez-Castrillo  16 , Helena Bejr-Kasem  1   2   3 , Antonia Campolongo  1   2   3 , Berta Pascual-Sedano  1   2   3 , Pablo Martínez-Martín  1 , Diego Santos-García  17 , Pablo Mir  1   4 ; COPPADIS Study Group; Pedro J Garcia-Ruiz  18 , Jaime Kulisevsky  1   2   3
Affiliations
Free article

Clinical and structural brain correlates of hypomimia in early-stage Parkinson's disease

Frederic Sampedro et al. Eur J Neurol. 2022 Dec.
Free article

Abstract

Background and purpose: Reduced facial expression of emotions is a very frequent symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD) and has been considered part of the motor features of the disease. However, the neural correlates of hypomimia and the relationship between hypomimia and other non-motor symptoms of PD are poorly understood.

Methods: The clinical and structural brain correlates of hypomimia were studied. For this purpose, cross-sectional data from the COPPADIS study database were used. Age, disease duration, levodopa equivalent daily dose, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale part III (UPDRS-III), severity of apathy and depression and global cognitive status were collected. At the imaging level, analyses based on gray matter volume and cortical thickness were used.

Results: After controlling for multiple confounding variables such as age or disease duration, the severity of hypomimia was shown to be indissociable from the UPDRS-III speech and bradykinesia items and was significantly related to the severity of apathy (β = 0.595; p < 0.0001). At the level of neural correlates, hypomimia was related to motor regions brodmann area 8 (BA 8) and to multiple fronto-temporo-parietal regions involved in the decoding, recognition and production of facial expression of emotions.

Conclusion: Reduced facial expressivity in PD is related to the severity of symptoms of apathy and is mediated by the dysfunction of brain systems involved in motor control and in the recognition, integration and expression of emotions. Therefore, hypomimia in PD may be conceptualized not exclusively as a motor symptom but as a consequence of a multidimensional deficit leading to a symptom where motor and non-motor aspects converge.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease; hypomimia; neural; neuroimage; non-motor symptoms.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Goetz CG. The history of Parkinson's disease: early clinical descriptions and neurological therapies. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2011;1:a008862.
    1. Jankovic J. Parkinson's disease: clinical features and diagnosis. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2008;79:368-376.
    1. Ma HI, Gunnery SD, Stevenson MT, Saint-Hilaire M, Thomas CA, Tickle-Degnen L. Experienced facial masking indirectly compromises quality of life through stigmatization of women and men with Parkinson's disease. Stigma Health. 2019;4:462-472.
    1. Bologna M, Fabbrini G, Marsili L, Defazio G, Thompson PD, Berardelli A. Facial bradykinesia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2013;84:681-685.
    1. Gunnery SD, Habermann B, Saint-Hilaire M, Thomas CA, Tickle-Degnen L. The relationship between the experience of hypomimia and social wellbeing in people with Parkinson's disease and their care partners. J Parkinsons Dis. 2016;6:625-630.

Publication types