Longevity & AgingBrain Fingerprints: Cognitive Profiles Distinguish Four Parkinsonian Disorders
Researchers analyzed cognitive and neuropsychiatric data from 1,138 people across four parkinsonian disorders in the UK. They found that each condition carries a distinct cognitive fingerprint: frontal executive dysfunction dominates in PSP, visuospatial deficits in CBS, milder memory and executive impairment in MSA, and sleep disturbances most prominently in PD. Apathy was the hallmark neuropsychiatric feature of PSP, while depression and anxiety predominated in CBS. Critically, neuropsychiatric features outperformed cognitive domains in distinguishing between syndromes. Plasma neurofilament light chain correlated with cognitive but not motor severity in PSP. These findings support a bedside diagnostic classifier to improve earlier, more accurate identification of these rapidly progressive and often misdiagnosed conditions.
