ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Motor Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1613266
This article is part of the Research TopicWomen in motor neuroscience 2025View all articles
THE EFFECTS OF A SOCIALLY EVALUATED COLD PRESS STRESSOR ON INHIBITORY GATING, BRADYKINESIA, AND TREMOR IN PERSONS WITH PARKINSON'S DISEASE
Provisionally accepted
- Iowa State University, Ames, United States
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Impaired inhibitory gating is a sensory processing symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD) that may be associated with bradykinesia and motor inhibition. Acute stress impairs inhibitory gating in healthy adults; however, it is unclear how stress impacts inhibitory gating in people with PD.Using a Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor (SECP) to induce acute physical stress, inhibitory gating was assessed through electroencephalography (EEG) in eight individuals diagnosed with PD and eleven age-and gender-matched health older adults (HOAs) by measuring the p50 ratio during an auditory paired click paradigm. Kinematic measures of bradykinesia and tremor were also collected. Results confirmed decreased inhibitory gating (F(1,17) = 12.813, p = 0.002, ηp 2 = 0.430), decreased finger tapping amplitude (F(1,27) = 7.420, p = 0.011, ηp 2 = 0.216), and increased postural tremor amplitude (F(1,27) = 6.676, p = 0.016, ηp 2 = 0.198) in both persons with PD and HOAs following the induction of an acute physical stressor, with larger differences in persons with PD. Moreover, decreases in inhibitory gating were significantly related to changes in finger tapping amplitude and postural tremor amplitude. These findings provide evidence to suggest that stress impairs both inhibitory gating and some motor impairments in persons in PD, and that these impairments may be related. These results add to the limited literature in understanding the effects of stress on PD symptoms and may inform future potential clinical targets for therapeutics.
Keywords: Parkinson's disease, stress, inhibitory gating, P50, paired click Stressor, Inhibitory Gating and Motor Symptoms
Received: 16 Apr 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zaman, Jewell, Izbicki, Ph.D. and Stegemöller. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Elizabeth Stegemöller, Iowa State University, Ames, United States
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