Parkinson Discovery Institute
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Combining an eye-tracking decision-making task with standard motor and cognitive tests may help detect Parkinson’s disease earlier, even before major movement symptoms appear.
Aerobic exercise can improve movement in Parkinson’s disease even after major dopamine loss, potentially reflected in reduced blood biomarkers of disease severity.
A human-like maze test in PINK1−/− rats may help detect early cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease before motor symptoms appear.
In a Parkinson’s rat model, early dopamine boosts may delay movement problems, but aging reduces this compensation, leading to motor decline.
Parkinson’s research may be missing half the picture—dopamine changes in a second brain area, the substantia nigra, could be just as important for movement as the well-studied striatum.
In Parkinson’s, the brain boosts certain dopamine signals in one area to help delay movement problems, even as damage worsens.
GDNF therapy may fail if started late because key brain receptors decline, so boosting these receptors early might improve treatment in Parkinson’s.
Rodent models of Parkinson’s help us understand how exercise improves movement problems. But to apply this to people, we need to consider what patients are physically able to do.
Veterans with mild brain injuries have a higher risk of Parkinson’s, and spotting early thinking problems may help understand why.