Yonsei University · Medicine
Professor Seok Jong Chung's research lab focuses on understanding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying cognitive and motor progression in Parkinson's disease (PD). The lab investigates neuroimaging and neurocognitive markers—such as basal ganglia perivascular spaces, cortical atrophy, and cognitive reserve—that predict dementia conversion and motor disability in early-stage PD. Using advanced neuroimaging techniques and longitudinal analyses, the lab aims to identify individualized prognostic profiles to improve early diagnosis and personalized management of PD. Their work emphasizes the role of brain reserve and neurodegenerative patterns in shaping clinical outcomes.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
This study suggests that baseline enlarged BG-PVS can be an indicator of the progression of motor disability in PD.
This study aimed to investigate the cortical neural correlates of dementia conversion in Parkinson's disease with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI). We classified 112 patients with drug-naïve early stage PD meeting criteria for PD-MCI into either PD with dementia (PDD) converters (n = 34) or nonconverters (n = 78), depending on whether they developed dementia within 4 years of PD diagnosis. Cortical thickness analyses were performed in 34 PDD converters and 34 matched nonconverters. Additionall
The concept of cognitive reserve (CR) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) explains the differences between individuals in their susceptibility to AD-related pathologies. An enhanced CR may lead to less cognitive deficits despite severe pathological lesions. Parkinson's disease (PD) is also a common neurodegenerative disease and is mainly characterized by motor dysfunction related to striatal dopaminergic depletion. The degree of motor deficits in PD is closely correlated to the degree of dopamine deplet
These findings suggested that the patterns of striatal dopaminergic denervation, which were estimated by the equation derived from the factor analysis, have a prognostic implication in patients with early-stage PD.
These findings suggest that these factor analysis-derived cognitive profiles can be used to predict dementia conversion in early-stage PD. In addition, frontal/executive dysfunction contributes most to the occurrence of dementia in PD.
This study suggests that the designation of PD-MCI subtypes based on memory function would highlight the heterogeneity of functional correlates as well as the longitudinal cognitive prognosis.
The present study demonstrated that the old-onset PD group exhibited more severe dopamine loss in the caudate and were more likely to develop gait freezing, suggesting that age at onset may be one of the major determinants of the pattern of striatal dopamine depletion and progression of gait disturbance in PD.
Our results suggest that autonomic dysfunction is associated with disrupted white matter and functional brain connectivity as well as cognitive impairment in de novo patients with PD.
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