The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	A Study on the Cognitive Disturbances in Parkinson's Disease -Comparison between Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and WAIS-
Language	J
AuthorList	Mitsuko Nakano¹⁾, Hisamasa Imai¹⁾²⁾ and Tsutomu Okada³⁾
Affiliation	¹⁾Dpt. of Neurology, Juntendo University School of Medicine ²⁾Dpt. of Neurology, Tokyo Rinkai Hospital ³⁾Faculty of Letters, Kanazawa University
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 24 (2), 161-169, 2008
Received	Jun 5, 2006
Accepted	Feb 7, 2008
Abstract	It is widely believed that patients suffering from Parkinson's disease (PD) maintained general cognitive ability, though the results of WCST (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test) for Parkinson's sufferers showed lower score-indicating a decline in frontal lobe ability. However the results found in the literature were contorversy. For studies conducted using either the Milner or Nelson versions of the WCST, approximately only half showed a significant difference between the PD group and the Age Matched Control (AMC). On the other hand there were numerous studies conducted with the Kashima Version of WCST which showed a significant difference between the PD and AMC groups. Among such studies, only relatively few administered WAIS or WAIS-R to quantify the cognitive ability of the PD group. This paper reports on a study employing a modified version of the WCST, derived from the Milner version. The study contrasts 63 PD patients without dementia with an age matched control group of 82 individuals and a young control group of 53 individuals, in number of Categories Achieved (CA) and Perseverative Error (PE). The results show: 1) The PD group showed a significantly lower CA score, and an increase of perseverative error. 2) The WCST results had no correlation to the Yahr stage of freezing in PD. 3) The numbers of years of education had a mild influence on the CA results for the AMC group, but this was not the case for the PD group. 4) For the PD group, WAIS scores showed a correlation with years of education, whereas WCST shows none. 5) WCST results showed almost no relation to Object Assembly however they showed a mild correlation with performance IQ. For the PD group, the results of the performance IQ elements of WAIS were all lower than average. Visual cognitive ability and visual constructive ability were both low. Taken together, the results of the study indicated that the decline of WCST scores for PD sufferers was attributable to a decline in performance IQ.
Keywords	Parkinson's disease, cognitive disturbance, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), WAIS, performance IQ