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Why Some Parkinson's Patients Gamble

Posted on: Friday, 26 October 2007, 15:00 CDT

A U.S. researcher says he thinks he knows why Parkinson's patients treated with Deep Brain Stimulation often exhibit compulsive behaviors.

Michael Frank, of the Laboratory for Neural Computation and Cognition at The University of Arizona, and colleagues say DBS interferes with the brain's innate ability to deliberate on complicated decisions.

DBS is a surgical treatment involving the implantation of a brain pacemaker, which sends electrical impulses to specific parts of the brain to treat disorders such as chronic pain, Parkinson's disease and tremor. DBS implants affect the subthalamic nucleus part of the brain, which also modulates decision-making.

This particular area of the brain is needed for what's called a 'hold-your-horses' signal, Frank said in a statement. When you're making a difficult choice, with a conflict between two or more options, an adaptive response for your system to do is to say 'Hold on for a second. I need to take a little more time to figure out which is the best option.'

This could be one explanation for why these patients develop gambling habits, Frank said.

The findings are published in the journal Science.

Source: United Press International

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