Parkinson's disease and pathological gambling: results from a functional MRI study.

Seven patients with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) and pathological gambling (PG) and 7 PD patients without PG were investigated by functional MRI and a block-design experiment with gambling-related visual cues alternating with neutral stimuli and rest periods. Compared with PD/non-PG, in PD/PG patients, several areas of increased cue-related blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD)-response were observed including bilateral anterior cingulate cortex, medial and superior frontal gyri, and precuneus, right inferior parietal lobule, and ventral striatum. The over activation of cingulate cortex and ventral striatum in PD/PG patients after the craving task is similar to that reported in addicted patients, whereas the activation of the parietal structures is probably related to the attentional network.