ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Health and Clinical Neuroscience
Brain Functional Activity of Parkinson's Disease Patients Under a Virtual Reality Eye Movement Task: A Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
- 2Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
- 3First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
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Objective: This study aimed to investigate the eye movement behavior characteristics and associated brain functional activity changes in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients during a complex visual task, using virtual reality (VR) eye movement tasks combined with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology. Methods: A total of 27 PD patients and 29 healthy controls were included in the study. Participants performed a "Whack-a-Mole" eye movement task on a VR platform. Fixation time and task error rates were recorded, and fNIRS was used to measure changes in brain oxygenation. The differences in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration in brain regions between PD patients and healthy controls were assessed during task performance. Results: The PD group exhibited a significantly higher task error rate compared to the control group (p = 0.02), and a significantly longer mean fixation time (p = 0.001). fNIRS results revealed that the PD group had considerably higher oxygenated hemoglobin concentrations in the bilateral primary visual cortex (V1), visual association cortex, primary somatosensory cortex (S1), and auditory cortex compared to the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: PD patients exhibit significant eye movement behavioral impairments during the execution of complex visual tasks, accompanied by compensatory brain functional activation in relevant brain regions. These findings provide important insights for the early diagnosis and therapeutic intervention of PD.
Keywords: Parkinson's disease, PD, virtual reality, VR, EYE MOVEMENT, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, fNIRS
Received: 07 May 2025; Accepted: 24 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Shi, Wang, Yang, Wang, Lin and Qi. 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: Yongzhong Lin, lyz12085528@163.com
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