Brain oscillations implications in Parkinson’s Disease patients with or without remitted gambling behavior

Among the non-motor features of Parkinson Disease (PD), impulsive-compulsive behaviours such as Pathological Gambling (PG) have been described in the last decade. We studied the decisional process in non demented PD patients with PG, patients who remitted from PG and those who never gambled (CNTR) using the IOWA Gambling Task (IGT). We evaluated electrophysiological activity (EEG) during the performance, by computing the power spectra. The present research focused on the decisional processes by using IGT. We included non-demented patients with PD treated with stable DRT 14 patients with PG, 10 patients who developed PG in the course of the disease but that were in stable remission (ex-PG) and 18 patients who never gambled. The frequency band analysis showed significant differences among the groups. Specifically low-frequency bands (mainly delta and theta) showed an increased delta activity within the posterior (occipital) areas for PG compared with the other two groups, mainly during erroneous decisions (disadvantageous options). In contrast remitted PG group revealed a similar power distribution as compared to CNTR. The low-frequency bands prevalence may underline an anomalous cortical response by PG patients with regard to their ability to monitor and control emotional behavior during a decisional task where “gambling” feature is relevant.