title: Dopaminergic system and dream recall: An MRI study in Parkinson's disease patients.
abstract: We investigated the role of the dopamine system [i.e., subcortical-medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) network] in dreaming, by studying patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) as a model of altered dopaminergic transmission. Subcortical volumes and cortical thickness were extracted by 3T-MR images of 27 PD patients and 27 age-matched controls, who were asked to fill out a dream diary upon morning awakening for one week. PD patients do not substantially differ from healthy controls with respect to the sleep, dream, and neuroanatomical measures. Multivariate correlational analyses in PD patients show that dopamine agonist dosage is associated to qualitatively impoverished dreams, as expressed by lower bizarreness and lower emotional load values. Visual vividness (VV) of their dream reports positively correlates with volumes of both the amygdalae and with thickness of the left mPFC. Emotional load also positively correlates with hippocampal volume. Beside the replication of our previous finding on the role of subcortical nuclei in dreaming experience of healthy subjects, this represents the first evidence of a specific role of the amygdala-mPFC dopaminergic network system in dream recall. The association in PD patients between higher dopamine agonist dosages and impoverished dream reports, however, and the significant correlations between VV and mesolimbic regions, however, provide an empirical support to the hypothesis that a dopamine network plays a key role in dream generation. The causal relation is however precluded by the intrinsic limitation of assuming the dopamine agonist dosage as a measure of the hypodopaminergic state in PD. Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Rome "Sapienza,", Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: De Gennaro
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Rome "Sapienza,", Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Olimpia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lanteri
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Behavioral Neurology, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.|Centro Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi, Compendio del Viminale, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Piras
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Rome "Sapienza,", Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scarpelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Behavioral Neurology, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Assogna
authors.affiliation: Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'aquila, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ferrara
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Behavioral Neurology, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.|Department of Neuroscience, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Caltagirone
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Behavioral Neurology, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.|Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Spalletta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000978:Antiparkinson Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D018491:Dopamine Agonists / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004325:Dreams / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009929:Organ Size; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D012890:Sleep / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000978:Antiparkinson Agents; D018491:Dopamine Agonists
keywords: MRI; VBM; amygdala; dopamine; dream recall; dreaming; hippocampus; medial prefrontal cortex; mesolimbic dopaminergic system; sleep