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J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry doi:10.1136/jnnp.2007.118729

The effects of subthalamic deep brain stimulation on noun/verb generation and selection from competing alternatives in Parkinson’s disease

  1. Joanna E Castner (j.castner{at}uq.edu.au)
  1. The University of Queensland, Australia
    1. Helen J Chenery (h.chenery{at}uq.edu.au)
    1. University of Queensland, Australia
      1. Peter A Silburn (pa{at}silburn.com.au)
      1. St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital and The Wesley Hospital, Australia
        1. Erin R Smith (e.smith{at}shrs.uq.edu.au)
        1. The University of Queensland, Australia
          1. Terry J Coyne (tcoyne{at}brizbrain.com.au)
          1. St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital and The Wesley Hospital, Australia
            1. Felicity Sinclair
            1. St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital and The Wesley Hospital, Australia
              1. David A Copland (d.copland{at}uq.edu.au)
              1. The University of Queensland, Australia
                • Published Online First 2 October 2007

                Abstract

                Background: Impaired generation of verbs relative to nouns has been reported in Parkinson's disease (PD) and has been associated with the frontal pathophysiology of PD. This study aimed to measure noun/verb generation abilities in PD and to determine whether noun/verb generation is affected by stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN).

                Methods: Eight participants who had been diagnosed with PD and had received surgery for deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the STN as well as 15 control participants completed a noun/verb generation task with four probe-response conditions; namely noun-noun, verb-noun, noun-verb, and verb-verb conditions. PD participants were assessed whilst receiving STN stimulation and without stimulation.

                Results: During the off stimulation condition, PD participants presented with a selective deficit in verb generation compared with control participants. However, when receiving STN stimulation, PD participants produced significantly more errors than controls during the noun-noun and verb-verb conditions. For PD participants, errors during verb generation were significantly correlated with item selection constraint (i.e., the degree to which a response competes with other response alternatives) in the on stimulation condition, but not the off stimulation condition.

                Conclusions: STN stimulation modulates a frontotemporal network associated with word generation and affects the ability to select from many competing lexical alternatives during verb generation.

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