Neurophysiological brain-fingerprints of motor and cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease.

Brain fingerprinting is a novel approach that advances the neuroscientific understanding of differences between individuals. Recent work has shown that brief recordings of our brain activity differentiate us from each other, just like the fingerprints of our hand. The present study investigates how brain-fingerprints can help evaluate patients affected by a chronic neurological disorder like Parkinson's disease and advance the understanding of the physiology of the disease. The authors discovered that the brain regions involved in the sense of touch and motor functions, whose functions are impaired by the disease, are the most prominent for differentiating between patients. In contrast, regions that support abstract thoughts are more typical of the healthy brain fingerprint. They also found that the more severe the motor symptoms, the more distinctive the patient's brain-fingerprint. However, they also report that in Parkinson's disease, brain activity tends to be more variable over short periods of times, which makes patients' brain-fingerprints more elusive to differentiate. Nevertheless, the study shows that the brain-fingerprint of patients is related to the cortical topography of the neurotransmitter systems affected by Parkinson's disease. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of brain-fingerprinting as a tool to advance clinical neuroscience towards improved understanding and future interventions against neurological disorders.