title: Simple and choice reaction time in Parkinson's disease.
abstract: Reaction-times were evaluated in 6 parkinsonian patients and 6 normal control subjects using a simple reaction task and 3 choice reaction tasks of differing complexity. Reaction-times were measured as the time from stimulus onset to the onset of electromyographic activity in the responding muscle. Reaction-time was significantly delayed in patients compared to controls in all tasks, but to a greater extent in the more difficult tasks. The relative magnitude of the change, however, was only 4% in the simple reaction task and 8% in the more difficult choice tasks. These results suggest that the deficit in Parkinson's disease is unlikely to represent a defect in preprogramming as suggested by some investigators. Instead, our results indicate a disturbance in the cerebral processing of the auditory stimuli after their occurrence and prior to the initiation of motor activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Box 0114, Room M-794, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kutukcu
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Goodin
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Aminoff
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results