Morphometric Brain Changes in Young-Onset and Late-Onset Parkinson’s Disease: A Comparative Study

Motivation: Neuroimaging has been used to unveil structural alterations in PD and YoPD, with VBM, SBM and tractography. DBM is an effective modality to detect whole-brain morphological differences. Goal(s): To detect deformation based morphometric differences between clinically stable PD and YoPD. Approach: This study aims to use DBM and SBM to identify morphological changes in PD and YoPD, to develop key insights into differential disease specific patterns. Results: In PD and YoPD, in spite of clinical similarity, DBM revealed subtle, significant subcortical atrophy, reinforcing its utility as a effective measure for capturing PD-associated neurodegeneration. Impact: Deformation-morphometric analyses identified unique structural brain changes in PD and YoPD, especially critical subcortical alterations. Duration and onset specific atrophy in the view of clinical similarity, reinforces the utility of DBM as a sensitive method for capturing PD-associated neurodegeneration.