Hippocampal Lewy pathology and cholinergic dysfunction are associated with dementia in Parkinson's disease

Abstract

The neuropathological substrate of dementia in patients with Parkinson's disease is still under debate, particularly in patients with insufficient alternate neuropathology for other degenerative dementias. In patients with pure Lewy body Parkinson's disease, previous post-mortem studies have shown that dopaminergic and cholinergic regulatory projection systems degenerate, but the exact pathways that may explain the development of dementia in patients with Parkinson's disease remain unclear. Studies in rodents suggest that both the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic and septohippocampal cholinergic pathways may functionally interact to regulate certain aspects of cognition, however, whether such ..