Unravelling the Mind: Neurodegeneration and Beyond

Parkinson's disease and Dementia with Lewy Bodies are both neurodegenerative diseases which impact movement and cognition. Both are marked by the same protein aggregates in the brain. So, what makes them different? What makes someone vulnerable to one but not the other? What does the genetic evidence tell us? Can this distinction help us understand the basis of disease and help inform individual treatment approaches?

"The brain makes up around 1% of the body's weight, but accounts for about 20% of the body's total energy consumption. This very high energy use leads to the creation of a huge amount of waste products, but astonishingly until around 10 years ago we didn't know how this was removed. In this talk I will explain how the glymphatic system takes advantage of sleep, brainwaves, and the natural fluid which surrounds the brain to clean this waste and maintain optimal conditions for brain function. I will also explore some of the fascinating links between glymphatic function and memory. Finally, I will explore how dysfunction of the glymphatic system may be involved with a huge variety of neurological diseases, including some of our research on Parkinson's disease.

Anxiety is a common non-motor symptom often reported by people with Parkinson’s, especially those who experience “freezing of gait” - a brief, sudden inability to move the feet forward despite wanting to walk. Research has found that signs of increased stress or alertness, such as changes in skin conductance and heart rate, often occur around the time of these freezing episodes. This suggests a strong connection between stress or arousal and freezing of gait, which is one of the most disabling movement problems in Parkinson’s. While it is known that anxiety is linked to changes in brain chemistry caused by Parkinson’s disease, it is still unclear how much a person’s feelings of anxiety or worry - as well as physical signs of stress involving the body’s automatic nervous system - actually contribute to freezing of gait episodes or affect daily life.