Parkinson's disease is a motor disorder that occurs when the brain loses cells that produce dopamine - a brain chemical that helps control reward and pleasure and also regulates movement and emotional responses.
The disease has four main symptoms:
1.trembling in the hands, limbs, jaw and face;
2.stiffness of the trunk and limbs;
3.slowness of movement; and
4. problems with balance and coordination. The symptoms of Parkinson's disease, which rarely strike before the age of 50, gradually worsen to the point where doing normal everyday things like, walking, talking, eating and taking care of oneself becomes very difficult.
People with Parkinson's disease struggle with 'reward learning'
Research shows that people with Parkinson's struggle with "reward learning," and find it difficult to make motivated decisions to seek positive outcomes. Reward learning depends on brain cells that secrete dopamine in response to rewarded actions - such as when pressing buttons leads to receiving money.
In Parkinson's disease, patients are given the dopamine-boosting drug L-dopa to compensate for the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells.
"Expectations play a central role in the mechanism of the placebo effect. In Parkinson disease (PD), the placebo effect is associated with release of endogenous dopamine in both nigrostriatal and mesoaccumbens projections, yet the factors that control this dopamine release are undetermined".
However The strength of belief of improvement can directly modulate dopamine release in patients with Parkinson disease.
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