Executive Function & Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease causes problems with thinking and mood. These thinking disturbances occur early in the disease. The most common thinking deficits are in executive functions which involve higher level thinking skills. These problems may lead to other difficulties such as, sadness and lack of impulse control. Cognitive rehabilitation helps some people with Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's Disease

• Parkinson's disease, a brain disorder,that is named for the British doctor, James Parkinson, has four major symptoms. They are tremor, rigidity in the trunk or legs and arms, slowness in moving and mental decline. Parkinson's disease gets worse over time.

Executive Functions

• Executive functions are a group of higher level thinking skills that involve planning and self-control. Most of the executive brain functions are controlled in the frontal lobes of the brain. This area of the brain is last to mature and the first to decline. Executive functions include the ability to develop strategies for a task that involves multiple steps, think ahead, switch from one task to another quickly, concentrate, control impulses, predict based on recognizing a pattern, think logically, choose what to do with incomplete information, pay attention to more than one thing at a time, decide things quickly and accurately, and change plans based on what is happening in the surrounding environment.

Thinking Ability

• Most people with Parkinson's disease notice a decrease in their ability to remember things. They also find that the speed of their thinking is worse. These changes are subtle. This overall slowness in thinking is influenced by mood and sadness. Being sad can slow thinking. Research has begun in the area of cognitive rehabilitation that can reverse this slow mental thinking.

Cognitive Rehabilitation

• Cognitive rehabilitation is a therapy program which aids people in the management of difficulties in memory, thinking, perception and problem solving. Skills are practiced and plans are taught to help improve executive function and compensate for deficits that might still be present.

  According to an article in the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics from 2004, patients with Parkinson's disease showed a significant improvement at verbal fluency, logic and memory, as compared to a baseline group of others with Parkinson's disease who did not receive the cognitive rehabilitation.

Emotion

• Emotional state can have a decisive impact on your thinking. Your thinking can strongly impact your emotional state.

  Executive functions can influence your mood because executive functions control all the information you have about a situation. Executive function controls your evaluation of a situation as well.

Other Problems

• Problems with executive function can cause difficulty with serious matters such as money. You may not be able to balance your checkbook if you have Parkinson's disease.

  Also some medications for Parkinson's disease cause more impulsiveness on top of the higher sense of impulsivity from Parkinson's disease. Because of this, you can make poor choices.

  In addition the caregivers of those with Parkinson's disease are impacted because of their loved one's difficulties with executive functions. A study in the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings from 2007 says that the demands of caring for a loved one with Parkinson's easily can exceed the family members' coping ability.