Brain gray matter volume changes associated with motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease. Most studies have found that the histopathological lesion is not only localized at the extrapyramidal area (basal ganglia) but also at the cortex in PD patients. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) based on the voxel as a unit is described for quantitative detection of density and volume of brain tissue. In this study, VBM was used to investigate the brain gray matter changes associated with motor symptoms in PD patients. Twelve outpatients with PD and 12 healthy controls were recruited in our hospital from September 2013 to March 2014. VBM was performed on the whole brain of all subjects. Image processing and statistical analysis were performed using SPM8. A two-sample t test and multiple regression analysis were performed. Results were displayed with a threshold of P < 0.01, corrected by false discovery rate (FDR) correction and cluster size >30 voxels. Comparing control healthy subjects with the patients, the data showed that PD patients had reduced gray matter volume in the postcentral gyrus, the right supramarginal center, superior temporal gyrus, precentral gyrus, Brodmann area 41, transverse temporal gyrus, Brodmann area 3, and inferior parietal lobule. The data also found that between gray matter volume and UPDRSIII in PD patients, there were negative correlations in the right middle frontal gyrus, BA06, right precentral gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, and medial frontal gyrus, and between gray matter volume and Hoehn-Yahr (HY) in PD patients, there were negative correlations in the right middle frontal gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, BA6, and right precentral gyrus. These data supported that extensive changes associated with motor symptoms in the gray matter volume was mainly located in the related area of movement, which had obvious relevance with the progression of PD.