title: The on-freezing phenomenon: cognitive and behavioral aspects.
abstract: Freezing of gait is a warning sign of Parkinson's disease. One could distinguish off-freezing, which is associated with dopaminergic therapy and to its titration, and it is clinically related to wearing-off phenomenon. Differently, the on-freezing phenomenon seems to be related to a neural disruption of the frontal-parietal-basal ganglia-pontine projections; clinically, it does not respond to therapy modifications or to different drug titration. In a group of patients with on-freezing, we have detected an alteration of focusing attention, an impairment of set-shifting, in addition to poor abstract reasoning and a reduction of planning. These aspects have been even more evident, when compared with the results obtained by a group of PD patients, without freezing.
authors.affiliation: Medicina Clinica, Ambulatorio Complicanze Internistiche Cerebrali, Dipartimento Universitario Clinici di Scienze Mediche Tecnologiche e Traslazionali, Università degli Studi di Trieste, Ospedale di Cattinara, Strada Fiume 447, 34149 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moretti
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Torre
authors.forename: Rodolfo M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Antonello
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bellini