[olsen]

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/...bstract/awp052

Brain Advance Access published online on March 31, 2009
Brain, doi:10.1093/brain/awp052
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Do parkinsonian patients have trouble telling lies? The neurobiological basis of deceptive behaviour
Nobuhito Abe1, Toshikatsu Fujii1, Kazumi Hirayama1, Atsushi Takeda2, Yoshiyuki Hosokai1, Toshiyuki Ishioka1, Yoshiyuki Nishio1, Kyoko Suzuki1, Yasuto Itoyama2, Shoki Takahashi3, Hiroshi Fukuda4 and Etsuro Mori1
1 Department of Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan 2 Department of Neurology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan 3 Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan 4 Department of Nuclear Medicine and Radiology, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan



Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder with both motor symptoms and cognitive deficits such as executive dysfunction. Over the past 100 years, a growing body of literature has suggested that patients with Parkinson's disease have characteristic personality traits such as industriousness, seriousness and inflexibility. They have also been described as ‘honest’, indicating that they have a tendency not to deceive others. However, these personality traits may actually be associated with dysfunction of specific brain regions affected by the disease. In the present study, we show that patients with Parkinson's disease are indeed ‘honest’, and that this personality trait might be derived from dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex. Using a novel cognitive task, we confirmed that patients with Parkinson's disease (n = 32) had difficulty making deceptive responses relative to healthy controls (n = 20). Also, using resting-state 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET, we showed that this difficulty was significantly correlated with prefrontal hypometabolism. Our results are the first to demonstrate that the ostensible honesty found in patients with Parkinson's disease has a neurobiological basis, and they provide direct neuropsychological evidence of the brain mechanisms crucial for human deceptive behaviour.

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(© 2009 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. )

[paula_w]

well good ....right? lol hypometabolism...we're too slow to lie. Thanks madelyn that's interesting.

paula

[girija]

Thanks Madelyn!
very interesting! For a change, hypometabolism is associated with what I consider good! Or being honest is a metabolic disorder!!!??

Girija

Originally Posted by paula_w

well good ....right? lol hypometabolism...we're too slow to lie. Thanks madelyn that's interesting.

paula

[pacem]

Originally Posted by girija

Thanks Madelyn!
very interesting! For a change, hypometabolism is associated with what I consider good! Or being honest is a metabolic disorder!!!??

Girija

So, would it be impossible for a sociopath (who lies involuntarily) to have Parkinsons? How does that work? I'm afraid to take it any further.

[paula_w]

anybody here that used to be a sociopathic liar? share.

paula

Originally Posted by pacem

So, would it be impossible for a sociopath (who lies involuntarily) to have Parkinsons? How does that work? I'm afraid to take it any further.

[Curious]

Would they be telling the truth?

I'm not sure I agree with this study too much. Personality traits can also be learned from your envinronment. If you have kids, you have seen how they can start acting like their friends.

I'm up in the air on this one.

[reverett123]

I, for one, am a terrible liar. So much so that I quit trying many years ago. And if you are honest, then you don't have to keep notes.

[Curious]

Exactly Rick!

I don't have Pd...but no way could I tell fibs and try and keep them straight. I have never figured out how people can do that. Could be why they tend to get caught.

[Yam1]

I agree, we move and think slower. Or does our self-editing function disappear? Sophia from Golden Girls?

One line in the study is interesting: "...we show that patients with Parkinson's disease are indeed ‘honest’, and that this personality trait might be derived from dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex"

Honesty is dysfunctional?

[bandido1]

Well I'll agree the Pope was not a liar but ADOLPH HITLER?? Bob C