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. 2025 Jul 22:19:1613266.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1613266. eCollection 2025.

The effects of a socially evaluated cold press stressor on inhibitory gating, bradykinesia, and tremor in persons with Parkinson's disease

Andrew Zaman  1 , Crystal Jewell  1 , Patricia Izbicki  1 , Elizabeth L Stegemöller  1
Affiliations

The effects of a socially evaluated cold press stressor on inhibitory gating, bradykinesia, and tremor in persons with Parkinson's disease

Andrew Zaman et al. Front Hum Neurosci. .

Abstract

Introduction: Impaired inhibitory gating is a sensory processing symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD) that may be associated with bradykinesia and motor inhibition. Acute stress impairs inhibitory gating in healthy adults; however, it is unclear how stress impacts inhibitory gating in people with PD.

Methods: Using a Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor (SECP) to induce acute physical stress, inhibitory gating was assessed through electroencephalography (EEG) in eight individuals diagnosed with PD and 11 age- and gender-matched healthy older adults (HOAs) by measuring the p50 ratio during an auditory paired click paradigm. Kinematic measures of bradykinesia and tremor were also collected.

Results: Results confirmed decreased inhibitory gating [F (1,17) = 12.813, p = 0.002, ηp 2 = 0.430], decreased finger tapping amplitude [F (1,27) = 7.420, p = 0.011, ηp 2 = 0.216], and increased postural tremor amplitude [F (1,27) = 6.676, p = 0.016, ηp 2 = 0.198] in both persons with PD and HOAs following the induction of an acute physical stressor, with larger differences in persons with PD. Moreover, decreases in inhibitory gating were significantly related to changes in finger tapping amplitude and postural tremor amplitude.

Discussion: These findings provide evidence to suggest that stress impairs both inhibitory gating and some motor impairments in persons with PD, and that these impairments may be related. These results add to the limited literature in understanding the effects of stress on PD symptoms and may inform future potential clinical targets for therapeutics.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; inhibitory gating; p50; paired click; stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study Design. (A) The flow of data collection for each visit. (B) Example of placement of the electrodes for motion capture. (C) Examples of raw data collection for each movement outcome from the sensors.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The effects of the SECP and Control Tasks on the p50 response. (A) p50 ratio for both groups and both conditions. (B) Example EEG waveform, zoomed in, from one person with PD in both conditions.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The effects of the SECP and Control Tasks on finger tapping and postural tremor. (A) Finger tapping amplitude for both groups and both conditions. (B) Finger tapping amplitude CV for both groups and both conditions. (C) Postural tremor amplitude for both groups and both conditions. (D) Postural tremor amplitude CV for both groups and both conditions. Standard error bars are shown. Small horizontal bars show between-group differences. Long horizontal bars show within-group differences. Long horizontal bars connected with short horizontal bars show the main effect of the condition. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Repeated measures correlations between inhibitory gating and PD motor symptoms. Each dot represents one of two separate observations for a participant. Observations from the same participant are given the same color, with corresponding lines to show the repeated measures correlation fit for each participant. Solid color lines represent intra-individual correlations. The dotted gray line represents the fit of simple between-subject correlations. (A) Repeated measures correlation between p50 ratio and finger tapping amplitude. (B) Repeated measures correlation between p50 ratio and maximum postural tremor amplitude. **p < 0.01.
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