Flanker Task-Elicited Event-Related Potential Sources Reflect Human Recombinant Erythropoietin Differential Effects on Parkinson’s Patients

Abstract

We used EEG source analysis to identify which cortical areas were involved in the automatic and controlled processes of inhibitory control on a flanker task and compared the potential efficacy of recombinant-human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) on the performance of Parkinson’s Disease patients. The samples were 18 medicated PD patients (nine of them received rHuEPO in addition to their usual anti-PD medication through random allocation and the other nine patients were on their regular anti-PD medication only) and 9 age and education-matched healthy controls (HCs) who completed the flanker task with simultaneous EEG recordings. N1 and N2 event-related potential (ERP) components were identified and a low resolution tomography (LORETA) inverse solution was employed to localize the neural generators. Reaction times and errors were increased for the incongruent flankers for PD patients compared to controls. EEG source analysis identified an effect of rHuEPO on the lingual gyri for the early N1 component. N2-related sources in middle cingulate and precuneus were associated with the inhibition of automatic responses evoked by incongruent stimuli differentiated PD and HCs. From our results rHuEPO seems to mediate an effect on N1 sources in lingual gyri but not on behavioural performance. N2-related sources in middle cingulate and precuneus were evoked by incongruent stimuli differentiated PD and HCs.