Effect of Levodopa on EEG Connectivity in Parkinson\u27s Patients

Abstract

Levodopa is a dopamine replacement medication administered to patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) to alleviate their motor symptoms. However, its long-term use can cause adverse side effects, including involuntary motor movements. We studied 16 PD patients before and after taking Levodopa based on resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) recordings to determine how Levodopa affects the functional connectivity of their brain networks. We used several metrics from graph theory, in particular the minimum spanning tree (MST) metric, and analyzed how they change after subjects take Levodopa. We observed significant changes in the lower alpha band toward a more path-like and less globally efficient network after Levodopa intake. We also observed that changes in multiple network metrics after taking Levodopa correlate with changes in the unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale (UPDRS) scores of PD patients in the lower alpha and beta bands