title: Parkinson's disease is associated with goal setting deficits during task switching.
abstract: Ten Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients and 10 control participants were tested using a task-switching paradigm in which there was a random task sequence, and the task was cued in every trial. Five PD patients showed a unique error profile. Their performance approximated guessing when accuracy was dependent on correct task identification, and was nearly perfect when accuracy did not depend on correct task identification or in conditions without task switching. Nonetheless, PD patients showed normal task-rule implementation, evidenced by their preparation-related reduction in the reaction-time task-switching cost. The results indicate that, without redundant task information, some PD patients have a specific goal setting deficit, reflected in a difficulty determining which task is currently relevant.
authors.affiliation: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel. nmeiran@bgumail.bgu.ac.il
authors.forename: Nachshon
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Meiran
authors.forename: Gilad
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: Eynat
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yehene
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention; D003210:Concept Formation; D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values; D012718:Set, Psychology