Working memory in medicated patients with Parkinson's disease: the central executive seems to work.

Abstract

To determine whether a deficit of the central executive can explain the attentional deficits of patients with Parkinson's disease. Fifteen patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and 15 controls were given a dual task paradigm minimising motor demands and combining verbal, visual, or spatial span with two conditions of articulatory suppression. Although the spans were systematically lower in medicated parkinsonian patients than in controls, suggesting a decrease of central processing resources, there was no direct evidence for a deficit of the central executive. A deficit of the central executive either is not an inevitable feature of the disease, or is dependent on the nature of task (visuomotor v cognitive), or is corrected by dopaminergic medication.