title: Novelty seeking behaviour in Parkinson's disease.
abstract: Novelty seeking can be a positive trait leading to creativity and innovation, but it is also related to increased risk of damaging addictive behaviour. We have assessed novelty seeking with a three armed bandit task, in which novel stimuli were occasionally introduced, replacing choice options from which the participants had been choosing. This allowed us to assess whether or not they would be prone to selecting novel stimuli. We tested 25 non impulsive patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 27 PD patients with impulsive compulsive behaviours (ICBs). Both patient groups were examined "on" and "off" dopaminergic medication in a counterbalanced order and their behaviour was compared with 24 healthy controls. We found that PD patients with ICBs were significantly more prone to choose novel options than either non impulsive PD patients or controls, regardless of medication status. Our findings suggest that attraction to novelty is a personality trait in all PD patients with ICBs which is independent of medication status.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Neuroscience and Reta Lila Weston Institute for Neurological Studies, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Atbin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Djamshidian
authors.forename: Sean S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: O'Sullivan
authors.forename: Bianca C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Wittmann
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Lees
authors.forename: Bruno B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Averbeck
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003192:Compulsive Behavior / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D018491:Dopamine Agonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012016:Reference Values; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology
chemical_list: D018491:Dopamine Agonists