Dysfunction of the Default Mode Network in Parkinson’s Disease: 10 Years Later

Lecture overview

Functional brain connectivity represents functional association among brain regions, which can be assessed by measuring temporal correlations between spatially remote neurophysiological events from fMRI.  BOLD signal fluctuations represent intrinsic activity synchronization across the brain, allowing study of highly reproducible neural networks called Resting-State Networks (RSN).  Among RSNs, the default mode network (DMN) and the frontoparietal network (FPN) are the most relevant for cognition.  This presentation overviews some of the milestones of the last 10 years since DMN studies began in PD, also presenting recent results from our Center using empirical mode decomposition, which demonstrated reduced frequency of state alterations for the first time in early PD.

About Professor Zoltan Mari

Professor Mari is the Ruvo Family Chair and Director of the Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and Movement Disorders Program at Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health (CCLRCBH), in Las Vegas, Nevada.  He also is the co-Director of the Cleveland Clinic Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence, the Director of the CurePSP Center of Care, and the co-PI of the Lewy Body Association’s Center of Excellence at CCLRCBH.  Professor Mari is a Clinical Professor of Neurology and University of Nevada at Las Vegas, adjunct associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University, and associate editor of the Parkinsonism and Related Disorders journal.