Falkenstein, M. , Wild-Wall, N. & Willemssen, R.
Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany
The mid-brain dopamine system subserves motor functions and also reward learning. We examined whether decline of the mid-brain dopamine system plays a role in the adaptation of precisely timed motor responses by feedback information. A young, a healthy older and a group with off-medicated Parkinson patients performed a time-production task with feedback given after each trial. Young participants performed superior to the two older groups whereas the performance was comparable between the healthy older group and the patients. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) was of lower amplitude for older vs. young participants. Preliminary results suggest that the FRN-amplitude of the Parkinson’s patients is comparable to the healthy older participants. The decreased response accuracy of the older group, and possibly also of the patients, may be related to a weakened fronto-striatal dopamine system and thus a reduced ability to use feedback information for improving temporal aspects of the motor response