NDA@SZTAKI

Differential vulnerability of different forms of skill learning in Parkinson’s disease Different forms of skill learning in Parkinson’s disease

Likács, Ágnes

Demeter, Gyula

Racsmány, Mihály

Valálik, István

Kemény, Ferenc

2016-06

BF Psychology / lélektan

BF13 Memory and learning / emlékezet, tanulás

RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry / idegkórtan, neurológia, pszichiátria

The striatal dopaminergic dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease (PD) has been
associated with deficits in skill learning, but results are inconclusive so far. Motor
sequence learning (especially sequence-specific learning) is found to be deficient in
the majority of studies using the SRT task (Jackson, Jackson, Harrison, Henderson,
& Kennard, 1995; Siegert, Taylor, Weatherall, & Abernethy, 2006). While problems
with motor sequences seem to be prevalent, PD patients show intact performance on
AGL tasks, suggesting that the sequencing problem may be response- or taskdependent
(Reber & Squire, 1999). Acquisition of nonsequential probabilistic
associations also seems to be vulnerable as evidenced by impaired probabilistic
category learning performance in PD (Knowlton, Mangels, & Squire, 1996; Shohamy,
Myers, Onlaor, & Gluck, 2004).
Our aim was to explore the nature of the skill learning deficit by testing different types
of skill learning (sequential versus nonsequential, motor versus verbal) in the same
group of Parkinson’s patients. 34 patients with PD (mean age: 62.59.77 years, SD:
7.67) were compared to age-matched typical adults using 1) a Serial Reaction Time
Task (SRT) testing the learning of motor sequences, 2) an Artificial Grammar
Learning (AGL) task testing the extraction of regularities from auditory sequences
and 3) a Weather prediction task (PCL-WP), testing probabilistic category learning in
a non-sequential task.
In motor sequence learning (SRT task), the two groups did not differ in accuracy; PD
patients were generally slower, and analysis of z-transformed reaction times also
revealed deficient motor sequence learning in PD compared to the control group. The
PD group showed no evidence of sequence learning. The PD group showed the
same amount of learning on the PCL task as controls, and we observed higher rates
of learning on the AGL task in PD patients than in controls. These results support and
also extend previous findings suggesting that motor skill learning is vulnerable in PD,
while other forms of skill learning are less prone to impairment. Results are also in
line with previous assumptions that mechanisms underlying artificial grammar
learning and probabilistic categorization do not depend on the striatum (Reber &
Squire, 1999).

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Conference or Workshop Item

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http://real.mtak.hu/40467/1/Abstract_Parkinson_skill_Lancas...

Likács, Ágnes and Demeter, Gyula and Racsmány, Mihály and Valálik, István and Kemény, Ferenc (2016) Differential vulnerability of different forms of skill learning in Parkinson’s disease Different forms of skill learning in Parkinson’s disease. In: Fifth Implicit Learning Seminar, 23-25 Jún 2016, Lancaster.

http://real.mtak.hu/40467/